


Lest I forget you

by Crystal_Rose_Witch



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, First Kiss, Gen, Internal Conflict, Internal Monologue, Memory Loss, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Partners to Lovers, Rating May Change
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-13
Updated: 2020-01-06
Packaged: 2020-03-06 02:13:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 26,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18841540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crystal_Rose_Witch/pseuds/Crystal_Rose_Witch
Summary: Something has happened to the sole survivor but she doesn't remember what it was. She has no memory of the events that transpired aside from hazy vision-esque memories that may or may not be real when she shows up at the Valentine detective agency, hoping Nick will be able to help her solve a case where she is both the victim and the suspect.





	1. Chapter 1

The first thing that hit Sylvie was the strong metallic stench of blood, followed by a strangely sweet smell. Everything was hazy, like something was burning and putting off a lot of smoke but she didn’t smell any smoke, or fire, or heat at all actually. Bringing her hand up to rub her eyes she stared in horror at the broken machete still clenched in her fist. It had been a favorite weapon of hers, especially were close combat was concerned but for the life of her she couldn’t think about what would have broken the serrated blade clean like that until she saw something that made her blood run cold. Bodies, human as well as mechanical, laid in pieces around her, soaking everything crimson red. The floor, the walls, even herself. It made her head start to hurt.

“You’re coming around, good. This experiment may be a success after all,” Her head jerked up at the sound of the voice. It was praising her but with a condescending tone. She had to get out of where ever she was and she had to get out fast. Spotting a door on the other side fo the room she made her way over to it, picking the lock with little to no trouble, much to the voice’s surprise as they tried to convince her to stay in the room. Dropping her broken machete in favor of a solid oak baseball bat she carried with her Sylvie set out through the door, encountering masked figures carrying shock batons but they stood no chance against her as a solid swing to the head sent heads flying and bodies crashing into the walls.

According to the clock on her pip-boy she had been on the move for a half hour when she finally spotted her way out. Ducking into the tunnel Sylvie continued without stopping, not even looking back to see if she was being followed, she just knew she had to keep moving. Soon she made it out into the commonwealth, She leaned her back against the cold brick and stone retaining wall, the sharp cold sensation helping her persistent headache, and took a look at her pip-boy’s map to see where she was exactly, “I’m…near the CIT ruins…to my north-east…” She looked around again before making her way up and out of where she was hiding and headed south, across the Charles river and through the ruins of Boston, headed for the bright glowing lights in the distance.

Diamond City was far from a safe-haven but as Nick had told her when she met him, it was by far one of the safest settlements in the Commonwealth area and he was right. By the time she made it to the wall a storm had blown in from the coast, making the night seem even darker and soaking everything with a heavy, steady rain. Pulling her hat down over her head more she slipped in to the gates of the city, nodding slightly to Danny as he glanced at her but now more than ever was she glad the dark fabric of the trench coat she was wearing was soaked so he couldn’t clearly see the blood that she was covered in. Once inside the city she quickly made for Home Plate to regroup, clean up and think about what she was going to do about what happened to her. That's what bothered her though, she couldn't remember. Why had there been all those bodies? What had she done or what had been done to her?

One quick bath and a quick washing job on her silver shroud costume later she was securing her weapons back to where they belonged save for the broken machete she no longer possessed, “I need help…who ever they were…they obviously gave me something…I need help to solve this…” Sylvie paced the floor of Home Plate trying to think of who she could go to for help until one name came to her mind: Nick Valentine. The synth and her were partners, working together through most of their adventures in the commonwealth and beyond. She wasn’t sure if even the synth would be able to help but he was her best bet right now and unless he was out on a case she knew just where to find him. He was always at the detective agency when he wasn’t with her so Sylvie steeled her nerves, grabbed her still wet hat off the rack and left Home Plate, headed for the Valentine Detective Agency.


	2. Chapter 2

It was a night that would make even the worst creatures of the commonwealth skitter off to hide from the storm that was pounding nearly the whole area. The dame had come into the agency soaked to the bone from being out in the rain and looking perturbed, “Nick I need help.” I looked up from the file of our latest case on the desk in front of me and directed all my attention to the black haired woman.

I knew she had done something. What exactly I didn’t know, but she didn’t even have to say anything for me to be able to see that she had done something she probably shouldn’t have, “What is it doll?” I closed the file without taking my eyes off of her, “What did you do this time?” She took her soaking wet black trench coat off and hung it on the rack along with her hat. Only a gal like her could have pulled off wearing the silver shroud costume like that, it was what she called her “detective outfit”, a dig at my usual trench coat and fedora. I caught a faint smell of iron on her as she resumed her seat in front of me but with the way she would clean out raider dens, super mutant nests, and even gunner hideouts I figured she had been cleaning out places for the minutemen like she usually did.

She fetched a towel out of the back room and sat down across from me; idly drying her hair while she thought about what she wanted to say, “I don’t remember, but Nick I know I need help…something happened, something bad.” She fiddled with the pip-boy on her left wrist for a bit as silence fell over the room, enough that it was stifling. I knew she could go into a blind rage at the worst of times if pushed far enough but this was the first time she ever came to me asking for me to help her clean up a mess, “Please Nick…I…I think I messed up…but I don’t know…It’s all hazy…” She was genuinely scared for her life and I was the only person she felt she could trust at the moment. 

I pulled a cigarette out of a pack and lit it before offering her one. She kindly accepted the offer, lighting her's up with her own silver-plated lighter. We sat in silence for a little longer; I watched the smoke curl and dance in the yellowish lighting of the agency while she quietly took a drag off hers and kept her eyes on the pip-boy at her wrist, the smoke exhaled in a small, continuous breath, “You need to answer the question doll. What did you do that you feel you need my help to take care of?” I took a deep drag off of my cigarette, exhaling the smoke and watching it drift upwards yet again. She was staying quiet, never a good sign for the former lawyer. That meant she was thinking deeply and was devising a plan, the likes of which I probably was not going to like, “Doll?” I raised my voice slightly, enough that it broke her concentration and brought her attention back to me.

Her eyes locked with mine, her blue to my yellow. She stopped fidgeting with her pip-boy and focused right on me, ocean blue eyes unwavering and mouth in a thin line, “Whatever I tell you, it’s between you, me, and the dog. Okay?” I nodded slowly even though our third companion wasn’t present, waiting for her to continue. Tucking a strand of hair behind her ear she continued, her voice wavering, “I don’t remember what happened exactly detective…but when I came to I was…I was covered in blood and my machete was broken…the blade was snapped in two…” Her eyes soften as tears started welling up, eventually overflowing and spilling down her cheeks.

This wasn’t going to be easy, I could see that clear as day but I couldn’t stand to see her cry like this. I got to my feet, making my way over to her I knelt down beside her, brushing the fingers of my good hand over her cheek, wiping her tears away, “Don’t cry doll. We’ll get to the bottom of this and figure out what is going on, okay Sylvie?” She caught my hand in hers, bringing her other hand up to clasp mine between them. 

It had been a long time since she had been a client and not my partner since we had started working together after she initially came to my agency to ask for my help to find her missing son. Holding my other hand out I helped her to her feet supporting her as she tried to get her footing, “Nick…can I go lay down? I feel…exhausted…and my head is killing me…” It was clear whatever had happened was now wearing on her as she could barely stand on her own two feet. The whole way to the backroom where the beds were she didn’t let go of my hand, the fear and apprehension still in her eyes as she closed them to sleep. 

I stayed with her until she was relaxed enough to let go of my hand. Turning, I headed back to my desk, intent on sorting out what information I had so I would know where we were going to start. As I jotted down not only the information that she had given, which wasn’t much but also what I knew about what she was dong last the thought that she had earnestly called me “Detective” without using my last name afterward came to the forefront of my brain more than once. 

We had only been separated for a day or so until tonight so I was racking my brain to recall where she had said she was going and what she was planning to do. A few hours and three pages of paper that were now in a file later I heard a choked cry from where she had been sleeping. I rushed back to the bedroom, worried something had happened while I was working. She was deep in the grips of a horrible nightmare; incoherent words mumbled between shaky breaths. Sitting gently on the edge of her bed, I gently took her left hand, the one closest to me, in mine, “Sylvie, doll wake up, it’s just a nightmare,” The grip of her hand on mine was bordering on painful before her eyes flashed open and she jerked upright, screaming bloody murder, “Whoa whoa! Easy doll, easy, you’re okay.” I placed my hand on her shoulder to keep her steady as she came to her senses. 

“V-Val…Valentine?” Her breathing was still shaky and I could feel how hard her heart was pounding through her veins. Shakily she put her hands up before wrapping her arms around me tightly as she started crying again, “Nick…I…I’m sorry, please don’t hate me for what happened.” That caught me off guard as I was trying to comfort her. 

I soothingly ran my hand through her hair, feeling her grip on my shirt loosen as her breathing slowed and her shaking stopped, “Feeling better now?” All I got in response was a nod against my shoulder as she kept her face hidden, obviously not willing to let me see her cry. Every question I asked her was answered with either a nod or a shake of her head. 

Eventually, she pulled back, wiping her eyes on the back of her hand as she took a deep breath, “Let’s take care of this…the soon…the sooner we take care of it the better…then I can try and shake these…fuzzy memories…I haven’t had this unclear feeling since I woke up Vault 111.” Swinging her feet over the edge of the bed Sylvie sat up, finally deciding to let go of me to reach for her boots. As she pulled them on and fastened them Sylvie started trying to recall what she had seen in her dreams, hoping it would help solve what was probably the strangest case we had ever taken on. 


	3. Chapter 3

At this point, we didn’t have much to work with but she had insisted on heading out anyway so we were now headed northbound through the ruins of Boston. I was letting her take point as we were working off of her memory alone but I did try to steer her clear of unnecessary combat and confrontations unless she absolutely insisted we had to head right through said place.

When we had left Diamond City the sun was just coming up over the buildings; now it was nearly clear over our heads and I was starting to get concerned that she really didn’t know where we were going, “Doll…do you know where we are heading?” She stopped, turning around to stare at me like I had two heads. I was half expecting her to bite my head off like I had just insulted her but her head swiveled between me and the surrounding area. We were pretty much in the open having just crossed the river and coming up on the CIT ruins, “Why don’t we stop for a little? Give you a chance to rest,” I motioned to the ruins as to emphasize my point. She seemed hesitant to benear the ruins of the college but didn't voice a reason as to why.

We made it into the Rotunda building, the bodies of the super mutants and synths that we had downed about a week ago still littered the upstairs area. Sylvie picked an intact bench to sit down on while I scoped the area, “We’ve been on the road for a few hours now, I still don’t remember much though,” I took a seat beside her on a bench as she checked her rifle over idly, “You know…Dog-meat tracked Kellogg from Diamond City all the way to Fort Hagen…maybe he could retrace where I was.” She sounded hopeful in that plan and I couldn’t blame her, that german shepherd of hers had indeed tracked a man halfway across the commonwealth by only going on small clues.

Checking her over I tried to think of something that Dog-meat would be able to track. I decided to settle on the one object she wore constantly lately: the black trench coat and silver scarf; her silver shroud costume. She had been wearing it when she showed up at the agency last night. Hopefully, despite it getting soaked by the storm, she owed have something in the coat that Dog-meat would be able to get a hit on. I was skeptical about it as we were talking about Dog-meat trying to track someone who was constantly around but didn’t voice it so not to crush her hope, “Sounds like a plan. We’re already headed north so, what do you say we fetch him and go from there?” Sylvie nodded, placing her hand on top of mine as she grabbed her bag off the ground, pulling it on to her lap, and fishing out a tanned leather pouch of brahmin jerky and dried mutfruit and some purified water. Another stretch of silence came over us as she enjoyed her snack; offering some to me but I declined, reminding her that I don’t need to eat to which she just nodded along like I was telling her something she didn’t know, that alone was worrying to me.

“Doll, Maybe we should go see Amari. She is a doctor whose specialty is heads and namely brains. She might be able to help you.” I had tried to suggest doubling back and paying a visit to Dr. Amari multiple times before this, but she just fought me every inch of the way to where I eventually gave up, opting instead to threaten her with the knowledge that if she lost consciousness or something else happened to her we were going to Amari; no ifs, and's, or buts about it. She just crossed her arms and refused to speak to me for at least an hour or so, mumbling something about me ‘worrying too much’ and that I was being ‘overprotective’ of her. It was something she had teased me about before; how much I tended to worry about her, especially after we ended up in exceptionally unsavory situations where I wasn’t sure either of us would make it out alive.

Soon we were back on the road again and heading for Sanctuary. At least Sylvie had a destination in mind instead of her aimless wandering that she was prone to doing across the commonwealth. By the time we could see the bridge leading to Sanctuary enough stars were in the sky to where I could make out constellations. Once inside the settlement she headed right for her house, stifling a yawn as her pace slowed, “I’m gonna go to bed okay?” I nodded, watching a figure that was pretty sure was Preston Garvey making his usual rounds. Normally I would take up the night patrol when we came to Sanctuary to give the others, namely that minuteman who I swore never rested at all, a break but she grabbed my sleeve before I could part ways with her, “No…I want you to stay with me…I’m too scared to be away from someone yet.”

Right off the bat, my mind started to formulate an argument to her statement but I forced it down before I said something I was going to regret, instead conceding to her, “All right. Lead the way doll,” Following her into the house Sylvie refused to let go of my coat sleeve, surely her way of keeping me from leaving despite my reassurances that that was the last thing I was thinking of doing. She wandered between the bathroom and the bedroom, eventually coming back smelling of soap and smiling sleepily when she spotted me sitting in the red armchair she had positioned into the corner of the room. My trench coat was draped over the backrest and the radio next to me on the small side table was turned on to the classical radio station but the volume was turned down to only being background noise to drown out the sounds of the world outside the walls of the house, “Better get to bed doll, if you don’t you’ll run out of time to do so.” I tipped my fedora back slightly to get a clear look into her eyes before she turned and crawled under the blankets of the bed, shifting on to her side so she could still see me and gave another sleepy smile which I returned.

Within a few minutes she was sound asleep, completely signed off for the night but it wasn’t long until the nightmares started again. They weren’t as frantic as they had been the first night but she still mumbled in her sleep, “N-no…please, I’ll…please don’t hurt him…I won’t….I won’t…please don’t hurt him…” Leaning forwards, I propped my elbows on my knees as I listened to her before reaching for my coat to retrieve the small notepad and the pen I kept with me for when I was on a case to jot things down. I turned my attention back to the sleeping woman, writing down what information seemed relevant to our case and from what I could gather from her nightmare induced rambling she had been threatened into doing whatever had happened. As I continued to listen to her a disturbing picture was starting to form to where I tried to tune out her mumbling to think about something else, resorting to eventually leaving the bedroom in favor of watching the gathering clouds through the windows of the front room. I had no idea how I was going to go about discussing this with her if it was what I was thinking. I now had more questions than I possibly could have answers but one thing was making itself clear: this case was getting stranger and I had the feeling that it was going to get worse before it was going to get better.


	4. Chapter 4

By the time the next morning came the clouds had condensed, turning into a rain that had soaked anything not covered. I had resumed my place in the armchair in her bedroom after spending most of the night reviewing the notes I had made just as she started to stir from her sleep, “Morning, sleep well?” Sylvie nodded as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes and covered a yawn with her hand. She seemed to be more well rested though I hoped she would remember much about the dream despite how horrible it sounded for my perspective. I got to my feet, grabbing my trench coat off the back of the armchair, donning it before heading for the door, “I’ll be out in the living room. You get dressed and then we can talk about our plan for the day.” Pausing at the doorframe I took a glance over my shoulder at her still sitting on her bed wrapped up in the blankets before I made my way out the door and to the living room.

I set about making something for her to have for breakfast while I kept going over what I had heard last night. I now knew she had been threatened or that who ever was behind this had threatened to hurt someone she cared about and that it had led to her ending up in a bloody situation with a broken weapon. I had clues but yet no answers to where we were headed or who, if anyone, was behind this. I was so involved in my thoughts while making breakfast I didn’t hear her come up behind me, “Hey Valentine,” Her voice didn’t waver but I knew her well enough now to hear the slight difference in her the tone that indicated she was nervous. I tried not to let on that I was concerned for her so not to bother her but I mustn’t have masked it very well as I could see the concern in her eyes, “What’s wrong? You sounded concerned earlier. And don’t tell me it’s nothing, you may a good liar Nick but I can still tell when you’re lying.”

That caught me by surprise. I tried to think of a way to talk myself out of this but after being called out like that I just prayed she wouldn’t blow up at me, “I’ll tell you, but I want you to sit down first,” I turned back to the counter and continued to make breakfast while she got a kettle out and heated some water for tea; taking her favorite blue mug out of cabinet along with a tin of dried hub flower, wild tato blossom, and wild carrot blossom petals. She seemed to pause in thought then pulled another mug out of the cabinet above her head, filling it with the tea mixture as well after pouring the water into her own mug, bringing both of them to the table as I set a bowl of razor grain oatmeal with cut up mutfruit and some milk added to it down in front of where she had been sitting, “Doll, I’m going to need you to be honest with me during this discussion.” I took the seat across from her, glancing down to the mug and the steaming red liquid inside it. Wrapped my hands around the mug I could feel the warmth coming off of it while she stirred her oatmeal around in the bowl to cool it off a little bit more before she ate it.

“Okay Nick, I will be so let’s start talking,” Sylvie spooned some of the oatmeal into her mouth, chewing it thoughtfully before swallowing but not taking her eyes off of me, daring me to be the first one to start talking. If this was what it felt like to be on the other side of the desk during an interrogation I didn’t like it but it wasn’t as bad as people made it out to be, “Where do you want to start? Somethings are coming back to me but not much, seems to be only a 24 hour thing so come on detective.” There it was again, the use of the title without a name attached. It sounded strange to hear it, especially coming from her.

I swirled the tea around the mug as I formulated my thoughts before speaking, “First things first: are you aware that over the past few nights you’ve had nightmares? And you have been talking in your sleep during them?” I paused to see if she was following along before I started again, “The first night you were pretty frantic, woke up screaming bloody murder and not really able to remember anything. You did recognize me, but that was after you calmed down some. Last night though, they didn’t seem as severe but it was what you were saying that was worrisome,” Glancing up from the tea in front of me I saw she was staring down into her oatmeal, taking small bites, appearing deep in thought, “Do you want me to continue?”

Sylvie didn’t put her head up but she shook her head in response, “Nick, do you remember when I asked you to not to hate me for what happened?” She straightened up, head up finally, scraping the remaining oatmeal into a small pile in her bowl, “I really mean it…I don’t know what I may have said while I was sleeping but things are coming back to me, and they are things that are…well, let’s just leave it as they aren’t good.” Her eyes finally shifted to me, cold and hard. The last time I saw her eyes like that was when we were hunting Kellogg and they usually accompanied a strict, take-no-shit attitude that could get her through pretty much anything.

I did remember her asking me to not hate her though I still had no idea why but it seemed like I would be getting an answer soon, “What kind of things Sylvie? You asked me for help and I intend uphold that,” I pulled a cigarette out from the pack in my coat pocket and lit it, turning away from the table to do so. Taking a drag off of it, I leaned back into the chair slightly and exhaling the smoke up towards the ceiling before pulling the notepad out, placing it on the table, open to the page I had written the notes on, “This is what I could glean from your…ramblings last night,” She hesitantly took the pad of paper from in front of me, eyes flicking over the words. Her brow furrowed in concern and confusion at some of the things I had written down but I couldn’t tell if it was from the words or my not so great hand writing.

Once she had studied the text long enough she handed the notepad back to me, her hands shaking slightly, “I…was saying that?” Her voice held disbelief but her eyes said something completely different. They were still cold and hard, no emotions were coming through at all except for her voice, “Are we still going to follow through with our plan from yesterday? I think we should, because…” Sylvie put her hand inside the pocket of her black trench coat, fishing out something that made me wonder how she had come to be in possession of it. It was a knife; the handle and blade both completely stained with blood, “This doesn’t belong to me. The blood I don’t think is mine either…Hopefully Dogmeat can get something off of this to track…even if it leads us to raiders or gunners…it’s the best lead we’ve got right now Nick.” She pushed the knife towards me with one finger as if she was afraid it would rear up and bite her hand.

Reaching forwards I picked the knife up between the thumb and index finger of my right hand, my cigarette currently being held in my left hand and I turned the knife over in my hand a few times, making note of any distinguishing features the knife had that were visible under the caked, dried blood, “He might be able to get something off of it but I don’t know how far he could track it following that rainstorm that struck a few days ago.” Looking from the knife in my hand to her I could see the storm brewing behind her eyes now as the coldness started to crack. I just had to hope I wasn’t going to be on the receiving end when the storm broke loose, “You want to get cleaned up then we’ll head out? Pick up Dogmeat on the way?” She nodded, already deep in thought though it was only going on six in the morning. Getting to her feet she picked up her bowl, depositing it in the kitchen sink and proceeded to wash it with the remaining warm water from the kettle and some soap. “Nick, you can go get Dogmeat, I’ll meet up with you at the bridge. I want to make a stop by my storeroom and see about something to replace my machete. I think I have another one stored away in there,” She turned to me as she dried her hands on a dish towel and I could see she was trying hard to keep a firm demeanor despite an uneasiness that was starting to show in her eyes.

I myself was a little hesitant to agree but I just nodded, “Will do, we’ll meet you at the bridge” I could feel her eyes on me as I adjusted my coat after standing up, “Take your time Sylvie, I’ll go make sure the pooch is ready to go,” My hand had barely touched the door handle when I heard her footsteps followed by her arms wrapping around me and her mumbling something before she rested her head against my back, “Sylvie?”

She didn’t respond for a while as she just seemed to be content to just hold me in her arms like this. I wasn’t sure what to make of it as I turned to look at her, finding myself looking again into her eyes as she looked up at me, “Nick…regardless of what happens during this hunt…will you always…stay by my side?” The unease I had noticed a few minutes ago in the kitchen was certainly making itself known in her voice now. I slowly nodded though my mind was running a mile a minute with why she would be asking this. Nothing was adding up and I was starting to worry if it ever would.


	5. Chapter 5

It took her an hour to find whatever it was she was looking for in the storeroom and by the time she joined me and Dogmeat at the bridge the rain had ended, leaving puddles that reflected the now milky blue of the morning sky as the clouds disappeared from the sky, “Hey Dogmeat, how’re you doin’ buddy?” I had been looking out over the river towards the Red Rocket but Dogmeat gave her a playful bark, jumping up to put his front paws on her arms, “I missed you too Dogmeat,” She pulled the knife out of a pouch and that was when I noticed it in my peripheral: she had changed her clothes; instead of the silver shroud costume she was wearing a vault suit. Not just any vault suit either, it was her radiation resistant and ballistic weave reinforced one. She held the knife down to the pooch and let him sniff away at it, “Got the scent boy?” The dog gave another playful bark before taking off across the bridge, “Come on Nick.” She didn’t leave me much time actually say anything as she took off after the dog, leaving me to play catch up with them.

We followed Dogmeat down the road, through the town of Concord and headed off towards Lexington. I may have had my doubts about Dogmeat’s tracking ability off of the bloody knife but the mutt certainly had something and was going after it with fervor. When we stopped to let Dogmeat see if he could recapture the scent I noticed something eerie. We were standing in the middle of College Square, just outside the Cambridge police station but there were absolutely no ghouls to be seen. There was an old, pre-war saying about it being too quiet but that wasn’t exactly coming to mind at the moment, “Let’s check the buildings….this is a little unnerving,” All I got was a silent nod in response as she followed me with Dogmeat bringing up the rear. 

We searched and scouted for at least fifteen minutes, eventually finding some ghouls but they had all been hacked to pieces. If the blood hadn’t been only a few days fresh I would have assumed raiders did it but we found them hacked to pieces too in a building across the square from where we found the mangled ghouls, “Doll…” I turned to look at her but she just kept looking down at the floor, taking more interest in the dirt and trash that was piled in the corner than in me at the moment, “Do you know anything about this?” I was met with silence as she stared at the dismembered bodies again, “Okay let me rephrase that. Do you remember anything?” This time I was met with a nod before she motioned down the road in the direction of the police station. I was used to her just communicating with gestures, it was part of how she handled after dealing with something that was traumatic so I just nodded in response as I watched Dogmeat sniff around the Square some more. 

He barked and headed off in the direction of the Charles River, towards Boston. At least we were getting back into Boston proper but that was going to make it harder with all the blood that tended to be spilled over the streets in places. As we rounded the bend, following the line of the river, I could see the CIT ruins from where we were but Dogmeat took an abrupt turn down a flight of stairs towards the water's edge, eventually coming to a stop at a drainage tunnel opening. Barking once more he sat down and looked to us expectantly.

“This…drainage tunnel…I…this was where I managed to escape through…” Her voice was strained, apprehensive. Sylvie turned to me, flicking on her Pip-boy’s light and motioning for Dogmeat to take the lead. The German shepherd slowly entered the tunnel, ears down and tail straight, “You next…” She waved her illuminated hand for me to follow the dog but I just stood where I was. I wasn’t going to let her walk behind me, not when she was like this. There were too many variables I didn’t know about yet to let her be the one in the rear. 

“Not happening hon, after you,” I watched her eyes narrow into a glare before she stormed off into the tunnel after Dogmeat. Being a few steps behind her I could easily keep an eye on both her and the dog but I hadn’t expected her to slow her pace to match mine, let alone for her to reach over and take my hand to hold it firmly in hers. This was far from her norm but then again this whole situation had been surreal ever since she showed up at my office. Why she insisted on holding my right hand though I couldn’t figure out. That was my bad hand, the one she knew I often tried to avoid touching her with. The fact she had intentionally changed to walking on that side paired with this newest development I wasn’t sure how to react, “Scared?”

Sylvie gripped my hand tightly which I wasn’t sure was a yes or a no to her being scared. Normally, she would call me out for asking that but as she leaned against my arm slightly I took that as a definite yes to her being sacred. Up ahead Dogmeat stopped, head down low and growling at something not far from us by the sound of the footsteps. I pulled my 45 cal revolver out, pulling the hammer back as she aimed the light on her Pip-boy down the tunnel towards the sound, “Who’s there?! Swear if it’s one of you shock baton toting freaks-!” Her sentence dropped off as her eyes widened, “what?…a…a synth?” Sylvie glanced up to me as I leveled the sights on thing’s head.

There was no indication as to what a synth was doing down in the drainage tunnel, especially a gen-2 synth but being this close to the CIT one could only guess that those jerks down in the Institute were involved. Staring one of their patroller synths in the face was always unpleasant, especially for me since I knew that there wasn’t much difference between us but when I saw the faint crackle of static on the shock baton I knew this hunk of machinery meant business; sadly for it, I did too.

The sound of the single gunshot reverberated off the walls of the tunnel, followed by the soft clink of the shell hitting the concrete and a thud as the synth’s body crumpling into a pile of trash, a single bullet hole between its eyes. I kept my gun trained on the body in case it moved but it never happened. It was as dead as most things in the place now. After a few tense minutes, Dogmeat crept forwards, sniffed the body then bounded back to us, panting and dancing out of excitement. The sight of her dog being happy made her smile a little as she reached down and patted his head, scratching behind his ears endearingly before the pooch bounded back to the now cold body of the synth, “I think he’s got something…” Releasing my hand She cautiously made her way over to where Dogmeat was, “Nick, come look at this, this synth…it has a strange symbol on its chest.” I made my way over her and Dogmeat, stopping right beside her to examine the mechanical corpse.

The symbol was odd, it looked like the Institute’s symbol of the Vitruvian man only with skeletons and in a reddish brown paint, “Looks like a rip off of the institute,” I glanced to the side, seeing what looked like a maintenance tunnel, “Sylvie, over there.” She follows the direction of my hand with her light, eventually illuminating the opening.

Her eyes narrowed and her mouth set into a hard line, “Let’s go Nick, We’ve got to the bottom of this,” Before I could even agree with her I was being dragged by the sleeve of my coat into the tunnel as she addressed Dogmeat, “Lead the way boy.”


	6. Chapter 6

The deeper we went the darker and colder it got. By now she had let go of my sleeve in favor of holding my hand again. The cold was damp and hard enough to make even someone like me shiver when I couldn’t, “How’re you holding up?” I kept my voice low since we had no idea if we were being listened to. Sylvie lightly her shoulder against my arm due to the slight height difference between her and me. She seemed to be livening up some until she tripped over something, “Whoa, are you okay?” I caught hold of her arm as she gripped my sleeve again.

“Yeah, I’m fine…” She shone the light down towards her feet, letting out a soft gasp upon seeing what she tripped over. I looked down as well, eyes widening at the sight of yet another synth, but this one was headless, ripped off the body by blunt force it looked like, “Let’s keep…keep moving…” I could hear the distraught sound in her voice; Dogmeat could too as he nudged her hand with his nose and whined, “I’ll be fine…I’ll be fine guys…” She looked to the dog than to me, forcing a smile despite the sadness and fear in her eyes.

I wasn’t sure she was capable of going on but we continued on in the same fashion as before, keeping an extra close eye on the ground. If I was being honest, I hadn’t seen this many dead synths since Sylvie had taken control of the Institute and some of the people rebelled against her, including some of the Railroad. That had been the bloodiest conflict the commonwealth had known to date and all because she had refused to commit mass murder of innocent people who were only following their leader, “Wonder where all these synths are coming from. I didn’t think the Institute would waste them like this…they do take resources to build after all,” Rolling another head over with my foot I shuddered. The blank, empty eyes that were devoid of life just stared back at me. I tried not to think that there were very few differences between me and these decapitated bodies that littered the tunnel.

“All these synths…I…I did this…I…” Tears stung at her eyes as she blinked and tried to hide fight them back, “I’m sorry Nick…” Being torn between consoling her and wanting to know what she meant was easy as I wasn’t sure what to do until the sound of metal scrapping on metal reached us clearly spooking my partner making her turn and bolt in the opposite direction, the direction we came from. To say I was shocked and confused was an understatement as I watched her run off. I looked down to the dog before running after her, hoping I would catch her before she went into the Charles River which would happen if she didn’t stop in time.

“Sylvie!” I had finally caught up to her, managing to grab her arm just as we made it to the drainage tunnel entrance, “Doll what is wrong? Why did you bolt like that?” I got no answer from her, not like I expected one with how she had been a few minutes ago. She tugged in a futile effort to free herself from my grip on her arm but it was to no avail, “Did something come back to you that scared you that bad?" She looked back to me with nothing but fear in her eyes; almost as if she thought I was going to hurt her. I loosened my grip enough to not bruise her but to still keep where she was.

“Something…did come back to me…it was…when I escaped…those synths…the ones with shock batons, they tried to stop me…but I took their heads off with a bat…I had no idea they were synths…they wore masks and…and…” I sighed, I was honestly trying not to get frustrated with her but I did finally remove my hand from her forearm, slightly concerned that I had left a bruise, “The voice…they made me kill things…it called them ‘projects’…I don’t know what they actually were…I know that some of them bled…the others…the…the others…” This time she couldn’t stop the tears that fell as she broke down. Dogmeat nudged her leg with his nose and whined, looking to me expectantly.

It hurt to see her cry like this. She was a strong woman who had a habit of never wanting people to see her cry. I stepped forward, pulling her into a comforting embrace, “I think we need to think about finding somewhere to set up camp for the evening…or find a settlement for the evening. It’s clear we need to step back and take a minute. Clear our heads, we’re both getting nowhere with this.” She nodded in response but said nothing more as she kept rubbing the spot on her arm where had grabbed her. I jammed my hands into the pockets of my trench coat, “If we head out now we can make it to Diamond City before nightfall.”

I waited for a response which came in the form of nod before she looked out the entry of the tunnel, scanning the skyline of the ruined city, “Yeah Diamond City would be our best bet from where we are,” There was a hint of a cold bitterness in her voice that made me want to stay a few paces behind her. She sounded mad, and I had a feeling that anger was directed at me. I never tried to hurt her, I hoped she knew that but the trip back to Diamond City was silent as neither of us was really willing to say anything to the other. Occasionally she made a move like she was wanting to hold my hand again but just quickly pulled her hand back to her side, choosing instead to tangle it with her other one or just to let it hang loosely by her side. There was something more going on than I had initially thought, and it seemed to have scarred her badly.


	7. Chapter 7

The market of Diamond City was just starting to wind down for the night when we got back. I saw her off to Home Plate so I at least knew she was safe and sound in her home before heading to the agency. Ellie had already gone home for the night so I was left with just my thoughts for company, which at this point, didn’t make for good company. I took my usual seat behind my desk and lit a cigarette, taking a deep drag off of it. I exhaled and watched the smoke curl towards the ceiling as I mulled over the event of the day, “I still have more questions than answers but…I don’t think we should be going at this alone…” Putting the cigarette in the ashtray I got another piece of paper and a pencil, making a list of all the people we knew if they would be willing to come with us on this hunt, and their dependability based past experiences.

By the end of an hour or so I had a pretty cohesive list that was narrowed down to about five people. I wasn’t including myself in on this count as it was wholly up to her on who accompanied her on this aside from her dog, the dog was always a sure-fire bet, “Five people…there are only five people I would trust to go with her during this…three…two of them are a little iffy on the reliability aspect of things…” Setting my pencil down I stretched my arms above my head. I really had no need to stretch but it was just one of the human tendencies that I had from the original Nick Valentine, and it felt good to do after staying in one position for a long time.

I couldn’t help my thoughts wandering back to Sylvie, hoping she would be okay. The main thing my mind refused to let go of was the feeling of her hand in mine; how gentle she had been and how soft her hand was against the skeletal metal frame. I turned my hand over on top of the desk, still unable to understand why she would want to do something like holding hands. A knock at the door pulled me from my thoughts and instinctively I hid my hand back in my coat pocket, listening intently to see who it was that would come knocking at this late hour.

“Nick, are you in?” My shoulders dropped slightly as I heard her voice. Why she would be outside the office door at this hour I wasn’t sure but I went over, unlocked the door and let her in, “You are here, good. I tried to sleep but…I just have a lot that I need to tell you…” She pushed her hair out of her face and tried her hardest to look me in the eye, “Come on,” She grabbed my sleeve, pulling me in the direction of the bedroom, “I don’t…I want to talk about this between friends, and you are my closest friend Nick.” She looked back to me with a smile and a look in her eyes that she was waiting for me to say something that never came.

In the bedroom Sylvie took a seat on the bed, patting the mattress beside her for me to sit down. Obliging, I took a seat next to her but left enough room between us for comfort reasons, though it was moot when she scooted closer to me, “Well…start talking doll…” Before she even said anything she reached over and took my hand in hers yet again.

Taking a deep breath she started recounting what she had to say, “As I was trying to sleep it was like a lot more of the memories came back…clear and vivid…” Sylvie looked from my hand up to look me in the eyes, “I was ambushed on my way through Boston after parting with you here in Diamond City. I was taken hostage, and possibly drugged…I don’t know about that part…but the guy in charge…I think he was the voice I kept hearing…He threatened to hurt people I knew but…he threatened you specifically…” She sounded scared, worried for my well being. I wasn’t sure what to do about this new development. Who was this that they knew about her friends and why would they target me directly?

I placed my good hand on top of hers so her hands as between mine, “No one is going to hurt me. We’re going to be fine.” Shifting to face her I smiled, trying to convince her, without words, that it was going to be all right. She seemed to believe me as she leaned forward and rested her head against my shoulder, “Everything will be all right. If you’re up for it we could wait a little while, a day or so, make sure we are prepared before we go into that tunnel again.” She made a hum of agreement that I couldn’t tell if she was agreeing with the suggestion or if she was admitting that we weren’t prepared the first time.

Silence fell over the two of us but it wasn’t awkward or tense considering the standoff we had had earlier. It was actually comfortable but it took me a minute to relate that my partner had actually fallen asleep; more precisely, she had fallen asleep against me and I was stuck where I was. Getting my hands free was the easy part; I would have to get her laid down in order for her to sleep properly. That was easier said than done though as the minute I went to move her she woke right back up, terrified and wide-eyed, “Go back to sleep doll,” I brushed a few strands of hair out of her face, “Sylvie you need to sleep.”

She shook her head, “Nick, please…lay down with me. I don’t want to be alone…and…I need to know that you’re safe…” I didn’t know what her rationale and reasoning were like at in this half-asleep state to argue with her. Pulling back I stood up and headed for the stairs, “Val-,” I stopped and looked back at her, one foot on the top stair and smiled; telling her that I had to go make sure the agency was locked up and that I would be right back as it was just at the bottom of the stairs. I could feel her eyes on me the whole time as I walked down the stairs and turned the corner, locking the door’s deadbolt, and handle for her own comfort, before making my way back up the stairs.

“See? I told you I would be back in a minute,” I stopped upon seeing the tears in her eyes again. It was as if she thought that just my going downstairs would get me killed, “Now lay down and get some sleep. You need it.” I hung my trench coat up on a rack near the corner along with my fedora but the feeling of her eyes on me was still there. It was as if she were trying to memorize everything about me because I was just going to disappear into thin air. Returning to the bed I motioned for her to get under the covers so hopefully, she would pass out once her head hit the pillow but all she did was stare at me.

Finally, she laid down under the blankets and situated herself to get comfortable as I laid down beside her, my bad hand underneath the pillow under my head. It seemed to pacify her though she moved closer, wrapping her free arm around me, “I’m not going anywhere sweetheart, I’ll stay here with you. I promise,” At my reassurance, she closed her eyes; finally drifting off to sleep with a soft smile across her face and her hand moved to grip the front of my shirt as I rested my unpinned arm across her, settling my hand on her back. I laid there listening to the sounds of the night outside the agency as well as her soft breathing while the only light being emitted was the soft glow of my optics. I still couldn’t make my mind quiet down though enough to actually rest, especially when it decided to focus on the fact I had called her ‘Sweetheart’. Hopefully, she wouldn’t remember that.


	8. Chapter 8

By the time my system booted itself up the next morning sunlight was just starting to filter through the tiny gaps between the ceiling and the walls. I hadn’t expected to actually fall asleep but I guess I had been at peace enough after getting her to sleep that I felt comfortable shutting down for a while. It took a little bit to get my limbs to function completely, especially the one that I had kept under my head. I pulled my self up into a sitting position and made sure I had full use of both of my arms as well as my hands. Once satisfied I turned and put both feet on the floor, sensing the cold wood planks of the floor through my socks.

“Valentine?” I froze upon hearing my name coming from behind me. I hadn’t thought I had woken her up when I moved but I was wrong, “W-what time is it?” She sat up and rubbed her eyes before stretching. I wasn’t sure what to say to her considering I wasn’t sure how much she remembered from last night so I settled for putting on my shoes while I waited to see if she would say something. A few different emotions crossed her face as she tried to think about what happened last night and what we talked about but the question I got was the one I was not expecting, “Did…Did we really sleep together?” I froze again and looked over my shoulder at her embarrassed, confused, and stunned face as she tried to formulate her thoughts, “I’m so sorry Nick I…I can’t believe I did…we did…You’re such a good friend and you mean the world to me and I can’t believe we…” She cut herself off as I put my head down and started laughing.

I had to take a minute to try and compose myself enough to look at her, “Whatever you’re thinking happened, I can assure you didn’t happen.” After finishing tying my shoes I got to my feet, making my way over to the rack where my trench coat was hanging, “You showed up here at who knows what hour last night saying you had a lot to talk about.” I was trying to recount as much as I could for her.

Sylvie nodded along with what I was saying then smiled, hands gripping the covers in her lap, “I’m not sure if it was true or not but…I swear you called me sweetheart. I was probably dreaming though…we’re…just friends and partners…” This was the last thing we needed to be thinking about right now but thanks to my slip up last night it was at the forefront. I didn’t miss the way her eyes averted back down to her hands still in her lap though. Were we just friends? I considered her my partner but never put much thought into it past that, “Well, what’s the plan for today detective? Hang around town or move out?”

By now she had moved to sit where I had been on the bed, intently studying me again; not out of concern this time but out of humor if the grin on her face was any indication. She knew I knew something that I wasn’t telling her, “We should make sure we have supplies ready for when we leave again,” I paused and thought about the list downstairs on my desk, “…and maybe let someone know where we are going in case something happens,” Heading downstairs I unlocked the door handle for when Ellie got to work before grabbing the list, sticking it in one of the bottom drawers of my desk so she wouldn’t see it. Sylvie came traipsing down the stairs about fifteen minutes later and dropped into the chair opposite of my desk, the grin still on her face, “Yes doll? What is it?” I tried to level her over the case file I had open on the desk in front of me but I just couldn’t. Her grin almost reminded me of the Cheshire cat from that old pre-war fairytale.

She relaxed back, taking a nuka-cola out of her bag, she cracked it open and took a drink of it, “You tell me Valentine,” Her grin faded into a soft smile before becoming somber, “I don’t know if we should tell anyone about this. Keep it between you, me and the dog,” She paused to reach down and scratch Dogmeat’s ears. I had actually forgotten the dog was even in the agency; he had just curled up by Ellie’s desk and stayed there the whole night after following his mistress here. Smiling softly she continued, “I don’t like shopping at Myrna’s because of her synth hating talk, but we need to make sure we have supplies if we are going to try this again.” The bottle clinked as it was set down on the metal desktop. I knew she had a distaste for the general goods merchant even going as far as not shopping there. I didn’t care for her myself which is why I would generally steer clear of her stall if I was walking around the city with Sylvie.

We sat there hashing out a plan and bouncing ideas off each other until we came to an agreement: we would tell Ellie where we were going with as an exact location on a map as we could manage, but in turn, it would just be the two of us doing this. I wasn’t pleased with that but at least she had relinquished the idea that no one needed to know where we were going or what we were doing. Now that we had a plan in place I hoped we would be better off than we had been the first time: we knew where we were going, we knew how to get there, and we knew somewhat what to expect, at least as far as the entry tunnels were concerned. Now, all we had to do was wait for Ellie to arrive so we could tell her what was happening.

I returned to studying the case file…or at least looking like I was…while she finished her cola. I jerked upright feeling the cool glass of the bottle against my temple, “You’re thinking too hard Valentine. any harder and your bring might actually start smoking,” I pushed the brim of my fedora up slightly after readjusting it to glance at her again. As far as I could see she was pretty much back to normal but something in her eyes was off, it was the same look I had seen in them after the trip through Kellogg’s memories. It was a haunted, scarred look and it was one I had hoped I would never see again. She placed the bottle back down, “What did I ever do to deserve a friend like you huh? Whatever it was…it must have been amazing…” I opened my mouth to respond but it must have been a rhetorical question as she rose to her feet, heading to the small kitchen set up in the living area to make herself something for breakfast.

I hated the resigned tone she had suddenly, I hated it with a passion. After all the shit we had been through from the time she had rescued me from that prison of a vault till now just hearing her talk in a tone like that made me beyond mad but I knew that I couldn’t take it out on her. She hadn’t asked for any of this, she didn’t deserve to be like this, but I swore I would make whoever did whatever happened to her pay, I would make them pay dearly.


	9. Chapter 9

Once Ellie arrived at work Sylvie had her sit down so she could fill her in with the plan as per our agreement while I set about making a list of all the supplies we had currently available versus what we needed and planning for any and all possibilities when we went back into the tunnels again. I couldn’t hear the whole conversation, or rather I didn’t tune into it but I caught bits and pieces: Ellie’s questions of concern and the simple answers that Sylvie gave in response. She didn’t want to drag any more people into this than needed, even telling Ellie was more than she wanted but I knew she knew it was for the best.

“You’re going to be safe right? I…I can’t stand to stand the thought of losing either you or Nick. I thought I lost him once and that was bad enough.” That hit me a little harder than it probably should have but it was her response that hit me harder than Ellie’s.

“We’ll be safe Ellie, I promise,” A soft smile found its way into her voice, “I’ve always made sure Nick came back safe haven’t I?” I couldn’t see her face but I was sure her smile was forced yet gentle. She wasn’t sure if we were going to be okay but Sylvie was going to be damned if she was going to worry Ellie with it. Finishing up my inventory of the supplies we had available I reorganized them into piles by use and by importance. We had enough stimpaks and radaway to make sure she was going to be all right no matter what we came across so all we would have to gather was foodstuffs and water for the road. She poked her head into the back and smiled, “I thought you were a detective, not a quartermaster. How are supplies looking? Do we have to make a shopping trip?” The tenseness was still in her voice but she still held her smile plain as day.

Rolling my eyes at her comment I couldn’t help but smile, she was coming back to the way she used to be but who knew what would happen when we got back it into that tunnel, “Well someone has to keep track of the supplies,” I turned my attention back to the piles of supplies in question, “We have more than enough medical supplies, all we would need would be food and water for you,” She said nothing as I started packing the supplies into the bag, keeping them as organized as I could for the sake of keeping space in the pack. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see her making her way over to me before wrapping her arms around me, “See? Telling Ellie wasn’t so bad, now at least someone knows where we will be in the event of the worst-case scenario.” Once again I got no response save for her grip tightening on me.

After a while, she released her grip and whistled for Dogmeat before turning to me, “I’ll go gather the supplies I have in Home Plate. I know I have water stored there as well as some I can get from the purifier,” She may have released her hold but her hand lingered on the middle of my upper back, right over the spine. I recognized it as one of the silent gestures we shared when neither had the words to express what we felt the gesture of the hand on the back was a way of showing comfort and support to each other. I kept my eyes trained on the now packed bag on the bed, willing down my nerves enough to turn and face her.

By that point, though she was gone from the backroom leaving me standing there so I adjusted my trench coat and slung the pack over my shoulder before joining the two of them in the office, “So, any idea how long you two are going to be gone?” Ellie turned to face me from the filing cabinet by her desk. She had been going through some files but I couldn’t tell if she was just idling her time or actually trying to organize the thing. Judging by her posture though she was trying to think of anything other than the fact we were going into a potentially dangerous situation.

“Sorry, Ellie. We have no idea how long we will be,” I dropped the bag onto the floor by my desk chair as Sylvie sat on the chair opposite of me checking her gear and adjusting Dogmeat’s bandana while the dog sat by the chair happy as could be with the attention his mistress was giving him. Sylvie looked up to the secretary with yet another smile, “but hopefully it won’t take us too long. I mean it’s Nick, Dogmeat, and I so…we’ll be okay and we’ll make it home safely.” Rising to her feet she flashed us both a grin that was all teeth before heading to the door Dogmeat at her heels.

I’ll admit that I watched the door for a while after she left, long enough that once I turned back to Ellie she was grinning at me, “What?” I had a feeling I knew well what she was smiling about but I wasn’t going to incriminate myself, “You like her,” Her singsong tone made my embarrassment that she had any idea about the situation even worse. Yes, I may have had a minor crush on my partner; the woman who had just walked out the agency’s door, but I didn’t need my secretary of all people teasing me about it, “Does she knew you like her?” Ellie grinned even brighter at the indignant look I shot her, one I only used if I wanted her to shut up quickly and this was one of those times. It didn’t work though as she kept smiling as she walked over to the edge of my desk, “Does she?”

It was times like these I cursed the human Nick’s consciousness. His skills and wits were what kept me alive this long but it also made me have some intrinsic human habits; my smoking was one of them, the reaction to the embarrassment was another. I sank down into the desk chair, head in my hands and not willing to face her right that minute, “No…she doesn’t know…I…,” I glanced up to her as she put her hand on the edge of the desk, “Ellie you know why I feel like I can’t tell her,” This was yet another conversation I didn’t want to be having and I hoped that she would just let it go without another question. I liked Sylvie, and maybe it was more than just a fleeting crush, but the brass tacks of it were that she was human and I, well, wasn’t. I felt that it didn’t matter how much I liked her, she deserved, needed, to be with someone who would make her happy.

Ellie moved her hand from the desk to my shoulder, giving it a gentle yet firm squeeze, “I know Nick. You don’t notice the way she looks at you when you’re not looking though,” That was the last thing she said before walking away after lowering her hand back down to her side and leaving me with something else to think about while Sylvie was out of the office. 

After what felt like hours I pushed myself to my feet and grabbed the pack off the desk, “I’m going to go find her. Make sure she’s okay…” My hand was resting on the door handle when I heard her tell me I should try and stay safe. I glanced back to her, a slight smile tugging at my lips, “You know I always am Ellie,” and with that I pulled the door open and stepped out, closing the door behind me. 


	10. Chapter 10

The trek to her house was quiet which left my brain with a little too much time to think about things. Namely what Ellie had said about Sylvie; I had a hard time believing that she looked at me like I hung the moon, I didn’t even see why she would be interested in me at all. Wham! I ended up running face-first into the door of Home Plate all because I wasn’t focusing on where I was going and what I was doing; at least the market wasn’t full of people to see me do it. I stepped back and rubbed my forehead before noticing the door in front of me was now open, “Are you all right Valentine? That sounded like it hurt,” Sylvie was standing in her doorway; my fedora in her hands and a stern frown across her face, “You need to be more careful. You know you’re past the warranty date,” Her stern look broke as she laughed, handed my fedora back to me and let me come inside.

Home Plate looked about the same as it had the first time I had been there minus the mess. She had a water purifier set up near one of the exterior walls, a bedroom made in the upper level and what I assumed was a bathroom was tucked into the corner under the bedroom, “Classy place you got here doll,” I placed my fedora back on my head, following her move to the water purifier with my eyes. The processor I called a brain was refusing to provide a good excuse as to why I was there but she didn’t seem to care much, offering me a seat on the couch while she finished gathering her supplies. 

As far as our small talk went it was business as usual until she sank down onto the couch next to me. Reaching over she took my right hand in hers again, flexing the digits and watching how the parts moved together, “Nick…I’m scared…we know how to get in there now but…that doesn’t tell us what we’re walking into,” Satisfied with her examining she laced her fingers with mine she moved her other hand to my cheek, thumb softly stroking the worn and damaged skin, “I hope we’ll make it back but…there is something I want to do…just in case we don’t make it back,” I didn’t want to pry but now I was honestly curious now. I didn’t doubt she had loose ends she would want to tie up but I was pretty sure my processor stopped though when I felt her lips brush against mine.

When had she gotten close enough to kiss me? I must not have been focusing at all, either that or I really needed to stop putting off that sensor calibration but none of that mattered now at this given moment. She released my right hand, placing hers instead on the lapels of my coat as I pulled her a little closer, both of us deepening the kiss slightly. My processor finally caught up with what was happening just as she pulled back and I could see a light blush dusting her cheeks, “Sorry Valentine…I didn’t even ask you if that was okay…I’m just…” The tears spilling down her cheeks were enough to kill me right then. Sylvie was terrified of what could or would happen and I could do nothing about it. I wiped her tears away with my sleeve before pulling her into a hug, resting my head on top of hers as she wrapped her arms about me; griping my trench coat the same way she did that first night when she woke up from that nightmare.

We just stayed like that for what felt like hours, just grounding each other like anchors. Right then and there I made myself a vow that no matter what happened, no matter what we came across or found out I wouldn’t let anything happen to her, “You wanna head out?” I pulled back from the hug, hands still on her upper arms, “The same rule still stands from what I told you when I first agreed to come with you when we were hunting down Kellogg: This is your show, you say jump, I say how high?” That got her to smile as she leaned forward to put her forehead on my shoulder before nodding.

“Yeah let’s head out. The sooner the better, no use dwelling on any of it.” Sylvie got to her feet, pulling me up with her and grabbed both our bags. I reached over and took the one I had been carrying, slinging it back over my shoulder while she strapped Dogmeat into a set of armor that had some saddlebags attached for small items, “So…tunnel down by the river near the CIT right?” I could tell if she was talking to me or the dog with how she likes to talk to her pooch but she glanced sideways to me with a smirk, “I was talking to you Nick, not the dog. Are we headed straight to the tunnel?” Now both she and the mutt were staring at me; Dogmeat was panting and wagging his tail while not breaking eye contact but hers was the one that I could feel the most.

It felt like she was silently sizing me up and I had no idea if that was what she was actually doing until I nodded, shifting the weight of the bag on my shoulder, “Yeah. I have nowhere else to make a stop to,” Without another word we both headed for the door, dogmeat following behind like usual, and out into the now bustling Diamond City market. We took the long way out of town, Sylvie waving goodbye to Piper and Nat as we passed the printshop. They waved back but didn’t seem to suspect anything which seemed to put her at ease a little.

She stopped at the top of the stairs and turned to take one more good look at Diamond City. It wasn’t the best place in the world to live, we both knew that but it was the best option in the Commonwealth. It was the place I called home and even she owned a home here though Sylvie said her true home was up in the settlement of Sanctuary off to the Northwest, “Nick?” Her voice was so low it was barely a whisper as she stood there staring out at the settlement and people just trying to make a life in the post-nuclear war world, “Do you think we’ll ever see the city again?”

I looked from her, back out over the settlement as well and sighed, “We will doll. We always find a way to make it back.” She turned and walked through the entryway that led out to the Fens. As she made her way down the stairs she turned and made a b-line for the gate guard once she hit the bottom. Danny Sullivan was a nice enough guy; he never said anything bad about from what Sylvie said outside of the whole ‘buyer beware’ thing when he told her about the agency for the first time. I hung back with the dog who made himself content to sniff anything and everything present; including me while I stood with my back against one of the columns. He sniffed around at my shoes before sitting at my feet and watching his mistress as she thanked Danny and came back to us, “Finished gossiping?” That earned me a playful swat on the arm as she rolled her eyes and headed for the outside of the Wall, intent on getting this show on the road.

“Come on ladies! We haven’t got all day!” Now it was my turn to roll my eyes as Sylvie stopped beside the statue with her hand on her hips and a playful smirk on her face. The dog bolted across the brick towards her, his tail wagging the whole time, I just followed him over to her as she held the knife down yet again for the pooch to sniff. Time for round two.


	11. Chapter 11

Once outside the Wall Dogmeat took the lead and, thanks to the only hunk of evidence we had which was that knife, proceeded to sniff his way back across Boston. The ruins of the city seemed more normal now as the distant sounds of gunfire and the occasional shout or yell floated through the air. We crossed paths with three super mutants who fell pretty fast with a shot between the eyes, courtesy of her rifle, and a small ground of raiders, no more than three or four of them, who were no match once Sylvie released Dogmeat on them. Aside from our minor distractions, we made it to the tunnel on the bank of the Charles River in good time.

“Ready?” I looked over to her as I held my hand out; feeling a faint, warm, spark in my chest as she took my hand in hers, smiling. I could have just been imagining things especially following that kiss back at Home Plate but now I had to keep my mind on other things like the task at hand. Cautiously we entered the tunnel yet again, keeping an eye on the floor again after the last time. The dead synths were still where we had left them: crumpled in a heap on the filthy ground but by now their circuits were completely fried from the moisture and open-air exposure.

I couldn’t bring myself to look at them any more than I had to, stepping over them before waiting for her to step over the bodies as well. It felt horrible knowing that there wasn’t much difference between what they were and what I was aside from what was in my head and a few other things so I didn’t look back once we had made it past them and found the other tunnel that broke off from the main tunnel we were in. Dogmeat stopped at the entrance and sniffed around some more before heading inside, both of us following with weapons drawn. It led to a set of stairs that looked like they had been used recently.

They were covered in a thin layer of dust, that in itself was unusual, but there were fresh footprints in the dust both coming up and going down and they looked like they had been made by both people wearing shoes and what I could easily guess were more synths as some had no definitions to them at all, just a basic foot shape. Sylvie and I exchanged a cautious look as Dogmeat sniffed around at the footprints before bolting down the stairs, “Dogmeat!” Sylvie and I ran after him, taking care not to slip on the dust-covered stairs.

Finally the pooch stopped at the bottom of the stairs sniffing around intently and let out a growl, “Sounds like he’s got something,” I happened to be looking down when my feet hit the floor following the last step but I pulled my one foot back feeling my shoe stick to something tacky on the floor, “Doll, do you have your light available?” I averted my gaze from whatever could be all over the floor to her as she stood on the second step above where the dog and I were. She flicked the light on her pip-boy on and the whole area became illuminated in a white light so I look back down at my feet and I was sure that if I had been human my blood would have run cold and my heart would have stopped.

The floor was red, staining the floor deep mahogany almost and the more I walked around the more I felt the tacky feeling under my shoes, “This is blood…” I looked back to her again as she didn’t move from where she saw standing, “the dust…it must have been to cover this up but it looks like there is more here than their powdery dust can handle…” slowly I made my way back over to her as I could see her shaking from where I was standing and held my hand back out to her as if to help her down the last two steps, “It’ll be all right. Let’s keep moving.” I was trying to remain confident and sure but Dogmeat whined as if trying to call my bluff and get me to admit that I was unnerved by the amount of blood under my feet.

After a minute she took my hand, coming to stand beside me and we continued down the passageway; crossing more decapitated synths wearing masks and even some that looked more like human bodies, “I…I remember all this…I was the one who took all their heads off when I was trying to escape…” She shuddered at the memory but insisted we push forwards and keep going. For a while, we encountered nothing, not even a decapitated synth until we reached a section with doors lining the sides of the hall.

“Ah, if it isn’t the experiment. I knew you would come back to us,” The voice resonated off the walls and made her freeze with fear. At this point, I had no idea how far underground we were but from her tightening grip on my arm I could guess she was starting to feel claustrophobic, “And what is this you have brought with you? Some fodder for another experiment?” Just the tone of this guy’s voice was pissing me off. He had an annoying, self centered tone that grated on my nerves. I had a feeling I was the one being referred to as ‘fodder’ but I couldn’t think about it any longer as a strangely sweet smell started to fill the hall we were in, “Enjoy your sleep my experiment. And you, dead thing,” The voice had taken on a mocking tone with the names still being directed at me, “we’ll be seeing each other soon.” The smell was getting stronger. Not stronger really but more concentrated as my systems tried to compute what it was that I was smelling.

“Nick…I don’t feel good…” Her hands gripped my sleeve as I turned towards her to steady her. Rarely did she make any notion of not feeling well so it was an immediate red flag to me, “I feel light-headed…and-” That was all she could get out as she pitched forward, falling into me. I knelt down, lowering her to the floor and holding her in my arms.

“Sylvie? Doll please stay with me,” My mind finally came up with a response as to what the chemical in the air was but by that point, it was no good as I was barely able to stay conscious myself, “chloroform…they’re…using a type of…chloroform-" That was all I managed to get myself to say as I felt myself slump to the ground still holding Sylvie. The last thing I heard was the voice just laughing at the two of us and saying how dumb we were to come down there.


	12. Chapter 12

When I finally came to I was alone in a cold, dark, and metal room if the floor surface under me was any indicator. Groaning I pushed myself up into a sitting position, a pounding headache forming right behind my eyes, “ugh…I feel like shit…I forgot what a headache felt like…” A single bulb in the middle of the ceiling illuminated the room with dim light, not enough to irritate the headache that was slowly subsiding but enough for me to get a look of my surroundings and yep, I was in a prison cell. It looked like a solitary confinement type of deal but at least my hands and feet weren’t bound so I had that going for me.

“You’re awake, good, now we can begin.” That same voice crackled through a speaker somewhere in the ceiling as I pulled my knees up to my chest and crossed my arms over them. I wasn’t going to do anything let alone be part of any sort of experiment, “You’re stubborn huh? It doesn’t matter, if you want her to survive you’ll behave and do as you’re told. Understand?” That made me look up to see if I could see where the speaker and or camera was that he was watching me through. The jerk must have been grinning where ever he was if he thought this was funny enough to start laughing as I got to my feet, “Ready to begin? Dead thing?”

I ignored his comment about being a ‘dead thing’ and made my way over to the door, looking out the small barred opening. The hall was dark, just like my cell had been; the only light coming from small yellow lights lining the tops and bottom of the walls, “Why do you call me ‘dead thing’? I’m not dead, clearly,” My voice’s annoyed tone bounced off the walls of the cell, “If you want to call me anything my name is Nick Valentine, jackass!”

My outburst seemed to humor the person as his response was more cheerful than I was expecting from someone who just got called a jackass, “Oh yes, the synth detective. Funny, I thought you were N2-41,” I could hear the smirk in his voice as he said the designation out loud. How did he know what my designation was? No one knew that about me, not even the people down in the Institute knew my designation anymore. I thought it had been lost to time to where the only person who knew it was me, myself, and I.

I stepped back and glared up towards the ceiling, curious more than ever to know where that camera, speaker, and the microphone was that he could hear and see me, “How do you know that? How do you know my number?! No one knows my number except for me!” I couldn’t help the feeling of panic that was washing over me. This guy knew something extremely personal about me and I was not okay with it but I could do nothing about it.

The voice laughed again before speaking, “And those who built you. Has it been that many years that you forgot the sound of my voice? You insolent creation,” The voice now sounded horribly familiar as I got a sudden rush of anxiety, an emotion I didn’t even think I could have any more.

I took another step towards the door when I heard footsteps outside, “I was built nearly one hundred years ago, there is no way any of those scientists are still alive and kicking,” The statement was more for my own reassurance than it was in defiance of him. I could see vague, hazy memories of the time of my creation when I really tried hard enough to think about them but I had forced them back to the deepest parts of my mind so they wouldn’t surface, “Where’s my partner? Where is she?” All I wanted to do was get out of this room and get to her. At the moment she was the only thing that felt like it mattered right now and I was going to find her, no matter what it would take.

The man huffed in annoyance as I changed the subject. He apparently didn’t think that I cared about my partner, “Fine, you want to see her? We will take you to her, dead thing,” The door to my cell opened and at least four of those synths like what we had seen before stepped into the room. Instantly I took a step back away from them but I knew fighting would get me nowhere, especially if she was in danger or worse. Two of them approached me, one of them on each side, holding my arms to the point that I was expecting to be cuffed. They just led me out of the room; following two more of the synths down the hall. I cast a glance over my shoulder and saw that there were six of them in total.

I couldn’t see much as they led me down to wherever it was she was being held. The plaques by the doors were so worn and dated it was a wonder anyone could read what they said but it looked to me like I was in some sort of an offshoot of the Institute. Eventually, we stopped at a door that looked just like mine. I couldn’t see through the opening in the door so I had to trust that she was actually in there. The synths opened the door and roughly pushed me inside, closing the door behind me. I caught a started movement off to the one side of the room“V…Valentine? Is…is that you?” It took a minute for my eyes to adjust to the low lighting again but she was definitely there. Her room looked more like something you would expect for a prison cell with a bed and a small bathroom but nothing else, “You’re safe…oh, thank heavens you’re safe Nick!” She hurried over to me almost knocking me to the floor with how hard she collided with me. I wrapped my arms around her and held her tightly, resting my head on her shoulder like she was doing to me.

I could have kissed her right there but I didn’t, opting instead to just hold her like she was going to disappear, “And I’m glad that you’re okay doll, I really am,” I smoothed my hand over her hair, feeling that same warm sensation that I had gotten before.

We probably could have stayed like that but that obnoxious voice broke our happiness, “Well now that you know she’s safe we can begin the experiments!” Sylvie’s head jerked up off my shoulder with a terrified look, “I guess it would hurt to keep you two together. After all, you were one of my experiments at one point,” I gave a low growl of annoyance at being reminded of that, “so, I’ll cut a deal with you dead thing: survive the experiment, and we can meet face to face, the three of us.” The voice cut out, leaving Sylvie and me in uncomfortable silence.

I had no idea how to explain this if she asked but she just stared up at me, unspoken questions in her eyes. Neither of us spoke for a while until she gave a soft huff and put her head back on my shoulder, “So…according to the pip-boy it’s pretty late…and he’s keeping us together…” She blushed slightly, keeping her voice down so she would be heard as easily but I had a pretty good idea of what she was thinking or, I thought I did, “Did…can we sleep together again?” It was clear she wasn’t intending to say that out loud as her face flushed and she looked away, finding the floor pretty interesting all of a sudden.

I couldn’t lie, I was caught off guard by that and I knew things were tense already without needing to make them anymore awkward, “You should get some sleep, I…I can’t sleep right now, too much to think about,” I ran my hand over my scalp before placing my hat back on my head. That headache was back but not as bad as it had been. She wasn’t going to do anything without me being with her it seemed so I had to relent, “You’re stubborn you know that doll?” Sylvie just stared up at me again, raising a brow a silent question in response to my statement, “Fine…fine…” I turn her towards the bed, “Go lay down, I’ll join you in a bit okay? You know sleep is more important for you than it is for me.” She sleepily smiled and climbed onto the bed, curling up on her side, eyes trained on me even as I took my trench coat off, laying it over her in place of a blanket.

Sylvie gave a huff and grabbed my arm, “I get you’re a gentleman but get over here and lay down dammit. It’ll be warmer that way.” I couldn’t help but try and fight back the warming feeling in my chest at her declaration so I complied, laying down beside her on the threadbare mattress of the cot; holding her in my arms as her on hand yet again had an iron grip on my shirt.

Exhaustion soon took her to dreamland but I couldn’t sleep, I could even close my eyes. There was too much for me to think about, topped with the concern of what the following days were going to bring and if we ever managed to get out of this hell hole.


	13. Chapter 13

It wasn’t even morning when I was awoken by a sensation I hadn’t experienced before: the feeling of being strangled. My eyes widened as I choked out a gasp, staring at the culprit, “Sy-Sylvie!” The look in her eyes was distant, dead. She was looking at me but she wasn’t seeing me despite pinning me to the cot with her hands around my neck, “Sylvie, I’m sorry,” I hated to do it, I really did but I pulled my hand back and before I could process what I was doing or rather what I was about to do, I felt the palm of my left hand connect with the side of her face, snapping her head to the side.

She pulled back after that as if the slap had broken whatever had control of her, “N-Nick? Why?…” Tears start to fill her eyes from the pain I had just inflicted, “Why did you…” The sinking feeling that she wouldn’t believe me if I told her that she was choking me but I had expected retaliation. And that was exactly what I got as my head got snapped to the side from the force of her strike, and she did it just as hard as I had done to her if not harder, “What the hell happened that you felt the need to smack me?!” She was angry I couldn’t blame her. The side of my face where she had smacked me stung but I felt I deserved it.

A cold realization dawned on her face as she took a look at the position we are both in with her other hand still in a firm grip on my neck but I didn’t dare make a move after the altercation, “I…Valentine please don’t tell me I was trying to…” Releasing her grip she just sat there on top of me, staring at her hands, then to me, and back to her hands, “I hurt you…I was…I was trying to…that’s why you smacked me…It was…you did it self defense…” Her voice was shaking, she was on the verge tears and I knew it.

I pushed myself up into a sitting position; putting one hand on her back while propping myself up with my other hand, “Doll, you weren’t in control; I could see it in your eyes you weren’t,” I pulled her closer using my hand that was on her back and she put her arms around my neck, “you didn’t know what you were doing sweets,” She pulled back enough to look me in the face. I knew I had used a name I didn’t call her before but I figured it was too late to backpedal now, I also didn’t want to take back calling her that, “Don’t beat yourself up over it. It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been garroted,” That was a lie, but I didn’t need her to know she was the first person to try and strangle me, “Sylvie…Nothing’s going to happen to us. Not to me and definitely not to you, I won’t let that happen. We’ll make it through this, together,” Sylvie leaned forward, resting her forehead on my shoulder, softly mumbling about how stupid this whole situation was and how we should never have gone and come down to where we were before stifling a yawn, “Tired still?” Nodding she smiled sleepily, pulling my trench coat over herself again before proceeding to fall asleep so I laid back down pulling the pillow over so it was under my head, not sure how comfortable she would be like this.

I must’ve fallen asleep again myself as I was woken up by that grating, spiteful voice of the guy in charge of this whole ordeal, “Wake up experiments. It’s time to get started,” The voice channel cut out but if I wild have had a free hand I would have flipped him off and giving him an idea of what I really thought about him. At the sound of the voice Sylvie started; jerking upright again, “It’s sweet, my two greatest experiments sleeping with each other,” the voice took a darker tone, growling out the last few sentences, “Human companionship is a far cry from what you were meant for you useless, dead, thing!” It cut out again as we both shifted to sit up on the side of the bed.

I rubbed the back of my head, having not realized it sooner that she had hit the back of my head on the bunk last night during the confrontation. She sat beside me, holding my coat in her hands, “Thanks doll,” I shrugged it back on and stood up; casting a questioning glance up to the far corner of the ceiling, “What do you want of us? huh?” The voice just gave an annoyed huff, stating that he didn’t like his experiments to be demanding. I just rolled my eyes, Sylvie got to her feet as well and made her way to the small bathroom. I hated to think exactly what this guy knew about us but that would have to wait as the door opened and another of the lifeless drone synths I had figured them to be, placed a tray containing something the looked like overcooked oatmeal in it as she cam out of the bathroom, “I think your breakfast is here. No clue what it is though,” Picking the bowl up I moved the spoon around the bowl while trying not to wrinkle my nose up at the stuff. It looked nasty but as I had seen in the wasteland just because it looked nasty doesn’t mean it tasted bad.

She took the bowl from my hands, scooting the spoon around like I had been doing before going to sit on the bed to eat it. Once she finished she placed it back on the tray and one of those drones came and took it away again, “I wonder what we’re in for today…” She sounded scared slightly, like the bad memories were back in full force. I put my hand to her forearm comfortingly before she pulled me closer; I could feel her start shaking as she buried her face in my shirt, “Please stay safe Nick…I don’t know what we’re in for but please…stay safe,” I rested my head on top of hers, relishing her warmth.

Suddenly the door opened and six synths, wearing masks and brandishing shock batons entered the room. We broke our embrace turning to face them as the split into two groups of three. One group came over to her as the other approached me, restraining me much in the same fashion as they had when they brought me down to her. They held her in the same position; one on each side with one standing behind her as that same voice resonated through the room, “Time to go experiments. You’ll see each other…later,” The voice from the speakers broke into a laugh before it cut off again.

I felt a dull shock through my back as the one behind me jabbed me in the back the shock baton so I would move. The drones walked both of us out the door, Sylvie being taken to the right while I was taken to the left. I glanced over my shoulder to watch her being ushered down the corridor behind me. I could only hope that she would be safe and that we would both make it through this.


	14. Chapter 14

The room I ended up being ushered into this time was as desolate as the cell I had woken up in except this one had a metal exam table, a table with trays of tools on it and a few monitors with their black screens with green text and the audible hum of the processors, “You’re finally here,” The voice was coming from yet another synth who was standing int he corner yet this was different than the rest; it was wearing a lab coat and a white scrub cap to match. It looked too sterile, too clean. I was forced to move forward again, this time stopping just feet from the lab coating bearing one, “You’re not happy to be reunited N2-41?” Hearing my designation again made me beyond pissed.

This guy had no reason to be using it, I had a name and that was what I answered to, “My name is Nick Valentine, jackass,” The use of the designation made me feel strangely vulnerable; like I didn’t have control over it because I didn’t, I had no control over him using something that valuable, something so personal it made me uncomfortable just thinking about it.

The synth huffed at my response, “quiet, I will call you what you’re known by dead thing! And if you want your beloved to survive, you’ll behave!” I froze. He was using Sylvie’s well being against me; a low, cowardly move but without knowing where she was and how to get to her I had to take what he said at face value. It wasn’t right that he called her that though. That implied I was completely in love with her which I wasn’t going to deny but yet I wasn’t going to say it out loud and give him the gratification, “Now, you’re going to do as I say, understood?” His voice was a sneer; cocky and full of it sounding as I hesitantly nodded.

The last thing I could recall being told was being told to sit on the exam table and being threatened with being recalled if I didn’t. I just wanted to know what she was doing and if she was all right but that thought process was cut short when the medical looking drone plugged something into me. I felt like I was floating yet drowning but this was a feeling I knew from only one time before. It was the same feeling I had while we were sifting through Kellogg’s memories; the feeling of having a virus in my programming, “N…no…” My system naturally tried to purge the virus from my programming but it couldn’t. I could feel myself losing control over my own body until everything went black but I could tell I didn’t lose consciousness.

He had control over me now, complete and utter control and I was powerless to stop him. I hated to think this was what happened to Sylvie, why she could remember anything when she first showed up in the agency, “Now my experiment. I want to see your fighting capabilities,” I could hear the door opening and could only hope that I didn’t run into the wall since I couldn’t see anything at all but whatever the virus was put have been programmed to know the entirety of the building because I didn’t hit the wall or anything else. It was as if it was an autopilot program that my system kept trying to purge from itself, “Welcome to the Arena. This is where projects that misbehave and other things from the surface are brought to die,” The room sounded huge if the way his voice echoed told anything about it. This guy was treating this as kill or be killed which wasn’t unlike the wasteland but I wasn’t keen on the thought of killing helpless people as he made it sound.

The whole trip there my systems had been trying to rid itself of the virus, finally making slow progress just as my vision came back to me. I blinked and looked around; the room was circular with four heavy steel doors plus the one I entered through, a stained concrete floor in varying shades red, brown, and green and a smell that I'm sure would even make super mutants sick. It reeked of copper and something sweet that my now freed brain recognized as the smell of ethylene glycol which is found in coolant, “What…What is it…I’m up…against?” I had to force myself to get the words out There was no answer, no snide remark from the mad scientist as one of the doors across the room opened, prompting my immediate reaction of reaching for my gun, finding my trusted 45 revolver still in its holster where it belonged so I readied myself for the anticipated fight.

At the end of it all, I counted out fifteen ghouls, ten raiders, five gunners, and more synths than I cared to think about. I was covered in more blood and coolant than I think I had ever seen in this lifetime to where I was sure I was stained with it but I felt I had upheld my end of the bargain, “You survived…that is unexpected, I was expecting you to die…” He sounded annoyed that I hadn't lived up to what he was expecting. Personally, I didn’t care; it actually felt good to make the guy annoyed, it felt like payback for using my number against me all the time.

The door behind me opened with a teeth-grinding screech, enough to make me cringe from the sound but nothing came through. Slowly I made my way over to the door, checking outside into the hall for any sign of a security force or resistance. Finding none I paused and weighed my options: I could wait around and see what would come next or I could bolt and try to find her, “I did as you wanted, now where is my partner?” I got no answer yet the feeling of not knowing if this was a test or not was unnerving but I figured I would take my chances and bolted. If anything I had to get away from the blood, carnage, and death I had just caused.

I wasn’t sure how long I had been running before I stopped, slowing my pace down to a jog I looked around my surroundings. This place seemed to go on forever and who knew how old the structures were. Having stopped with my hand on the wall to let my coolant system do its job and start to eliminate the heat that my body produced while I was running. A blood-curdling scream damn would have made my heart stop if I had one. I knew that scream even if I had only heard it once or twice before; it was Sylvie. I couldn’t immediately recall the last time I heard it but did nothing but fill me with dread. Without thinking I broke into a sprint, taking off in the direction of the scream, “Sylvie!” Hearing her scream again ripped me apart on the inside as I raced through the halls, bound and determined to find her.

She came out in the hall from a door on the side of the hall, eyes wide but yet dull and lifeless. I nearly went face-first into the floor trying to stop myself inter to avoid running into her, “Nick,” Her voice sounded what I can only describe as wrong, distorted almost as she stood there staring at me. It wasn’t her, this was the same thing she had been when she had tried to strangle me earlier. The closer she got to me the more every sensor in my body was trying to compute that she was a threat versus what I wanted to think, “What’s wrong, Valentine?” Hearing my name in that voice filled me with a dread unlike that I had never felt and it triggered the fight or flight instinct.

I glanced left, then right, then left again before finally looking back to her; hoping she didn’t notice or wasn’t all there to see I was seeing if I had a way out. She seemed to be looking right through me at the wall and not actually at me, “I’m sorry Sylvie, I’ll save you from all of this…I promise” I hated to do it but I fled, it made me feel horrible but I swore I would get her back. I just had to figure out how.


	15. Chapter 15

Finding a room the scientist’s drones couldn’t find me in was surprisingly easy with how old the structures were and how widespread his camera system seemed. It may have been no bigger than a broom closet but that was more than enough to hide from the creep and his drones. Sitting against the wall I tried to wrap my mind around what had happened leading to this point. This whole place was supposedly run by the scientist who had been in charge of the project that I had been created for, we were who knew how far below Boston with no way to contact someone, and somehow he was controlling Sylvie and tried to do the same thing to me. Even my head hurt still as I kept trying to clear my system of whatever that was he had those drones try and download into my head. He probably wanted to make me one of those things under his command but thankfully my system recognized it as a virus and immediately tried to purge it from my programming.

Resting my head back against the wall I closed my eyes, going back through my memories and looking at the happier ones with Sylvie. Of time spent in Sanctuary with everyone and even the ones of just the three of us: Sylvie, Dogmeat, and I at the agency. Dogmeat…had he made it back to the surface okay? It hadn’t occurred to me till now. The memories made me sad but also made me more determined than ever to get her back. But how? I had learned that striking her broke the connections the control had on her but the thought of intentionally hurting her bothered me. I vowed to myself to protect her, not to hurt her but I didn’t know any other way to break the control he had on her. Opening my eyes again I stared down at my hands before clenching them into fists; I needed a plan. He most likely would send her after me knowing I was hesitant to hurt her but it would take some good acting on my part to act like I wasn’t expecting it. I got to my feet and checked out in the hall to see if it was empty before leaving my safe haven.

It didn’t take her long to find me though I tried to make it like I had tried to hide from her. They want to approach her was overwhelming but an aura of danger surrounded her though I knew I had to sound concerned and surprised by her, “Doll…what did they do to you?” I took a step back to keep distance between us but she just kept approaching me until my back was to the wall, “Sylvie?…” Her fingers brushed against my cheek as she lulled her to the side, dull eyes still fixed on me, “Doll listen to me, this isn’t you. You’re not in control, you need to fight it!” I sounded pathetic to my own ears and I knew I probably sounded like it to her but fighting her was the last thing I wanted to do. Placing my hands on her upper arms, I held her at arm's length, “I don’t want to hurt you, Sylvie, …but…I have no other choice…” Bringing my hand up again I whispered another apology before striking her just hard enough with a well-placed blow to the jaw hinge to knock her out.

Picking her up in my arms I took her back to the safe haven room as I had started calling it, laying her down on the floor, “…He has to be controlling you somehow…you’re too strong-willed to let someone have free run of your brain doll,” I ran my hand through her hair, stopping when my fingers brushed against something at the base of her skull. Turning her head to face away from me I brushed her hair aside to see what it was I had felt. It was small; about an inch wide and looked kind of like a black button. It hadn’t been there earlier so it might have been the cause of the screaming I heard. The thing blended in with her jet black hair but this must have been what was allowing him to control her. The question was now though: how did I get it off? It seemed like a courser chip almost and to remove those from a courser you had to get under it. Finding the screwdriver I kept in my coat I pulled it out, checking the tip over before seeing if I could get it under the edge of the object, “Stay still a little longer sweetheart. Hopefully, this will be over soon,” Getting under the object was easier than I anticipated as I gently and slowly worked the at loosening the entire edge of the device with the screwdriver; checking occasionally for blood.

Soon as it was loose enough I laid the screwdriver down beside me on the floor and tried to see if I could get under it enough to completely get it off of her. I could get my the tips of the fingers of my right hand under the edge of the device which allowed me to gently and slowly start working it off of the back of her neck. It went a lot slower than I had hoped but with one last gentle pull the multi-pronged chip released from her body, “Finally,” I placed it on the ground beside the screwdriver and took a handkerchief out of interior breast pocket of my trench coat, folded it into quarters, and pressed it to the newly formed, slightly bleeding wound where the chip had been. Once it stopped bleeding I turned her head back so she was facing straight up still keeping the handkerchief in place, “Wake up Sylvie” She didn’t stir at all and it was starting to raise a mild panic in me, making me doubt what I had done. I didn’t think I had struck her that hard but it had been a risky chance to take even striking her in case I didn’t hold back on my strength like I normally did.

Taking her gently in my arms I held Sylvie close to me, stroking her black hair again. I couldn’t help but feel this was all my fault; The one connecting factor both of them had to each other was me, I was the only thing really connecting them and now it seemed like I had inadvertently made her a target of him. Now here she was possibly under the control still of some crazed scientist and all I could do was hope she woke up, “Please…wake up sweetheart…,” I could feel my self starting to shake as my eyes felt like they were burning from tears that couldn’t happen, “Doll…please wake up…we all need you…I need you…I…I…,” My voice started breaking as I held her tighter and placed a kiss to her forehead, “I love you Sylvie,” Being able to actually cry probably would have made me feel better at that moment as I held her, not knowing if she would ever wake up again but all I could do was hold her and literally pray; something I only had memories from the human Nick of doing but I gave it a shot.

While my eyes were closed I felt a hand brush my cheek making my eyes suddenly open wide to find she was looking up at me, “Feeling’s…mutual Val…Nick…,” She sounded weakened and tired, not unlike how she had sounded after her escape the first time; giving up halfway through saying my last name and instead just using my first name but she was alive and that was the only thing that mattered, “You…you were crying…I could feel it, Nick…” There was no denying that one so I just smiled slightly. Helping her sit up more Sylvie snuggled against me, wrapping her arms around my neck as she rested her head against my chest, “I hate…making you cry…I’m sorry Nick…” She had no idea I was blaming myself for all of this and she didn’t need to know.

“It’s not your fault doll. If anything this is all my fault,” I just wanted to cherish the fact I still had her in my life. We were back together and this time nothing was going to take us apart. Now we just had to bring this guy down and get out of here and back to the surface where we belonged.


	16. Chapter 16

We sat in silence for a while after she moved to sit beside me but still keeping her hands wrapped around mine, “What do we do now? We’re in a hostile environment…no way to contact anyone…” I could tell she was trying to be strong like she always was but she when she started shaking I moved my good arm to rest around her shoulders. I just wanted to protect her from all of this; keep her safe, happy, and free of anyone who would think to hurt her again, “I don’t…think I could take that again…being controlled, knowing he wanted me to hurt you…I couldn’t live with myself if I caused you severe harm Nick…” I couldn’t face the thought of hurting her either.

According to my internal chronometer and her pip-boy, we had been gone going on two days. Not that that was a concern, I was generally gone for a week or more but now I was questioning if we were going to make it back at all. Sylvie leaned against me, my good hand in hers while my right arm rested around her shoulders. I could tell she was deep in thought while she stared at the chip that lay on the floor, “Between my pip-boy and your knowledge of electronics and hacking….Do you think we could crack it?” She looked up to me and I could see the tear she was fighting back glistening in the corners of her eyes as she tried to be strong and resilient like always. It made me admire her even a little more but it also made me worry about her more than I probably should. Leaning forwards I picked the chip up and looked at it closely.

It looked like something one would see in a Gen-2 synth but was designed to interface with the human body, “it’s…almost like he’s trying to make a gen-3 synth…but using already living humans to do it,” I turned the chip so she could see it, “This is modeled on the very internal portion of a neural interface network connector,” That just earned me a blank stare from her as she swirled her hand in front of her, motioning for me to continue, “In a gen-2 synth this is what allows their programming to be worked on and controlled. In me, it’s what keeps me, well…me,” Looking the back of the chip over I couldn’t help the annoying feeling that felt like a tingling at the base of my skull. I didn’t know what it was but it felt like it could get to be annoying, “I don’t know how we would be able to get into it. We would need a terminal and some poor synth’s brain, and no I don’t mean mine, to try and run it through possibly,” While I talked I cast a glance down to her out of the corner of my eye, catching that slightly enamored look as I explained why we would need to have to get into the chip.

Realizing that she had been caught staring she averted her gaze down towards the floor but I guess that was what Ellie had been talking about when she said I never saw how Sylvie looked at me, “So…So we have to find somewhere down here with a terminal?” She still wasn’t looking at me but her gripping my free hand conveyed enough, “Any of the labs would have a terminal…but…what if we get caught?” Pushing herself to her feet Sylvie looked back down to me before holding out her hand, “Let’s go see if we can find something to hack into.” Her lapse in confidence was gone just like that as I took her hand and stood up.

Checking my .45 caliber revolver to see what it’s ammo was likened reloading it I saw her doing the same thing with her modded 10mm, checking it and loading the magazine before giving me a nod to let me know she was ready to go. We stepped out into the hall Sylvie closed the door behind us as I scanned the hallway, “Okay when I found this room I was coming from that direction,” I motioned down to my left, “No idea what to the right…but if we want to find him we need somewhere that potentially has a map for the whole complex,” We started in the direction I had come from earlier, her staying ahead of me by a foot or two; not out of arm’s reach but far enough that we wouldn’t catch each other with friendly fire. As we went I pointed out rooms that and locations where I had seen drones before, “Hold up doll…” I stopped her with a hand to her shoulder. She stopped and glanced back to me, brow raised, “We’re not far from the area he called the ‘Arena’, best we keep alert more now than before,” Sylvie nodded as we continued on.

It was becoming eerily quiet. Gen-2 synths weren’t quiet, far from it due to the way there were built. I had been the experiment to see if it was possible to make them more human-like and as such, I had more human-like movements than those before me but I couldn’t hear any of them moving around, even with enhanced hearing. We checked every room we came across, finding ammo and supplies along with the occasional terminal but none contained a way to what we wanted when an all too familiar voice crackled over the speaker system, “Oh so the runaway and the experiment reappear,” I glanced up before back down to the stimpak in my hand, “And you two are together, what a surprise,” The sarcastic drawl was starting to grate on my nerves again but I ignored him, we had a mission and there was no need to get distracted by him. It seemed to irritate him as he started to berate us, namely me by constantly called me ‘dead thing’.

This carried on for about a half-hour as Sylvie and I continued our search. It took me another five minutes to noticed that he had shut up finally but I couldn’t find the time to pay mind to him, “Hey Nick! Over here!” I glanced over to see her fishing her hacking into a terminal. Sylvie had hit pay dirt; it was a terminal with access who his whole system. We looked over the whole terminal access before pinpointing where his signal was coming from, “That was…easy,” She glanced to me as a soft smile played at her lips. 

It was, a little too easy in fact. My mind was telling me he was able to find where we were and take us hostage again and the sound of footsteps outside the door of the room we were in confirmed my fear. We had been found and there was no telling what he was going to do this time but I had one idea on how to prevent it, “Hey doc, you said that if I behaved myself and went along with your experiment earlier that we could talk, you want to? Or are you afraid to face your own creation?” That sounded like it struck a nerve as we could hear him grumbling before the door opened but instead of the drone coming into the room I could hear him over the speaker system telling us to follow the synths and they would bring us to him.

I glanced back to Sylvie who nodded before taking my hand as we followed the synths down the hall. Neither of us put our weapons away even as we stood in front of what appeared to be a bank vault-like door. The synths opened the door, clearly either not thinking that we were holding weapons or not caring to make us drop them before we entered. Four of the drones accompanied us into the hallway behind the door which was gaudy looking by all standards even in the post-war world; a red faded carpet that had seen better days, with clearly painted yet chipping white concrete walls and brown stained baseboards. I looked over to Sylvie once more as she gave my hand a squeeze. She was nervous and I wasn’t going to lie I was too but I knew one if not both of us had to be strong.

Soon the hallway ended at yet another door but this one was ajar slightly, “Come in, don’t just stand out there!” I jolted slightly at hearing the voice without the speakers crackling. It was him, I had very faint and hazy memories of the time before I became Nick Valentine but I wouldn’t have misplaced that voice, “You’re here now dead thing, so let’s talk,” My body wouldn’t move, I just stood there stock-still while those hazy memories came back from the deepest dredges of my memory banks, “Rude creation. I’m offering it to sit and it doesn’t accept the invitation,” It took Sylvie physically pulling on me before I snapped out of my daze and took the seat that was offered while she sat next to me, “You know, you ruined my entire life dead thing,” He looked me over and scoffed before continuing, “You and that other synth you both ruined my life and my career. I don’t know who let you escape from the Institute but it came down on me, ME!” the scientist slammed his hand down making me jump slightly, “You were supposed to be a pinnacle project! a turning point of the sciences and what we could achieve! But someone, someone let you both escape! You ruined an entire project! I should have known better than to let you have a brain!”

His outbursts were triggering my fight or flight response, an emotion that had saved my life multiple time but now I was essentially trapped with only one way out and the both of us were outnumbered. Then something strange happened, he just calmed down and stared at me with what I could only describe as a calmly sadistic smile, “by the way dead thing, how does your head feel?” That caught my attention faster than anything else had. My head? Why did he what to know how my head felt? I couldn’t contemplate it much longer though as I watched him press a button on a silver device on the desk and a splitting pain through my entire body, emanating from the base of my skull, “This will hurt you more than it will hurt me, synth.” I went to move but my whole body locked up and my system went into an emergency shut down. We had walked into a trap and I had no idea if we would make it out alive.


	17. Chapter 17

I was back in the feeling of drowning yet floating, trapped inside my own head while this jerk controlled me and there was a chance I couldn’t fight it this time. That virus he tried to upload the first time must have embedded something in my coding that acted as a kill switch, shutting off my personality interface and ultimately turning me into what he wanted: a drone, “What have you done to him?” Sylvie’s voice wasn’t a screech but instead a low threatening growl that hinted at underlying malice, an unspoken threat that she would make his life hell like I knew she would. She took a step towards when she got no answer, “You fucked around with me more than once, made me forget where I was, WHO I was, and if you think you’ll do the same to Nick,” her tone turned dark, dark enough to make me wonder what exactly was happening outside of what I was hearing, “you're sadly mistaken. No one. hurts. my. partner.” The sharp, clipped tone that punctuated each word could make anyone question messing with her but the scientist just laughed, laughed at her. The last person I heard that had laughed in her face was currently dead as a doornail with no brain to speak of.

He sounded both equal parts confused and amused, “You want to save him? What good does a human have with a synth? Especially a defective one like this?” The scientist though seemed to not account for one thing while I was out that was an automatic response: even with the personality interface down my system still would try to right itself to bring the whole of me back online; this process kicked in as soon as I went into the emergency shutdown. I could feel that I was either moving on my own or was being moved until I was sitting upright again. My partner’s footfalls were lighter, softer than his were but that was when I noticed it. His were uneven like his one leg had been damaged at some point though they also sounded like he didn’t have the full range of motion which could mean one thing; he wasn’t completely human. I hated not being able to say or do anything but Sylvie seemed to be keeping him busy well enough until I heard gunshots and the dull sound of her hardened 10 mm connecting with plasteel before everything went silent as a door shut.

It felt like an eternity before I got some control back, the control of my awareness of my surroundings. Not enough to make much of a difference yet but with some regained control I focused on singling out the parts that blocked the receptors and other parts that controlled my vision and speech and getting them back up and working. It was going to be a slow process as this corruption was pretty well intertwined in my coding; I had to be careful not to accidentally ruin something of myself. My body didn’t move for a while after the last time but the room around me was silent, I couldn’t even pick up her footsteps and by best guess, I could say the scientist wasn’t in the room anymore. I felt like screaming, crying even; never before had I felt this powerless and weak, not even when I awoke in the commonwealth in that trash pile.

My sensors didn’t pick up any movement in the room until a hand rested gently on my shoulder, “Nick? Are you still in there?” I could hear her sit down on the desk in front of me, ‘Are you still with me?” There were tears in her voice but not completely sad tears. She sounded like how I imagined she sounded when she woke up in the vault and swore to find her baby and avenge her husband’s death. But I wasn’t dead…was I? I was sure I was still functioning, “Hold on Valentine…I’m going to get you back. I swear,” My sensors barely registered the soft kiss she gave me then I just felt cold and alone as Sylvie moved away, searching the desk.

At this point I had pretty much accepted that this was going to be my fate for a while, the cold and lonely feeling until I heard a voice that was familiar but sounded like it was only in my head, “got yourself in a mess huh?” It was coming from the deep recesses of my memory but I couldn’t put a name to it, “Come on, we’ve gotten out of worse jams than this,” Finally it occurred to me who I was hearing. It was the original Nick Valentine; the suave, confident demeanor that I wish I had sometimes was clearly evident in his voice but he was right, I had made it out of worse I just wished the odds were in our favor, “If I could help you I would but this is your body, not mine any more. I can try to keep you from panicking though, which you are prone to, regardless of wanting to admit that or not.” I hated that he knew that about me but I had to remember what I knew of him he knew of me. I willed myself to take the best breath I could given my circumstances while I tried to work the corruption out, at least having the other Nick there, even if he was only in my head, made me not as lonely.

I had almost untangled the sensors that controlled my vision when I felt something or someone put something to the back of my head again and it nearly made me lose my mind, “Hey, hey, calm down…” that voice, it was Sylvie again, but what my partner was doing was lost on me, “let’s see…I’ve seen Amari do this…but this adaptor like thing is…interesting…” I had no idea what she was talking about till I heard the sound of the remote connector unhook from the back of her pip-boy. She knew that little thing didn’t have the power to help me but it sounded like she was going to try anyway. I just wished I knew what adaptor it was she was talking about, “Nick, I don’t know if you can hear me or anything but I have an idea to help you,” The sound of her working with something on her pip-boy reached me but I still couldn’t make out what she was doing, “I’m going to use the pip-boy and his terminal as a sort of one way router, taking whatever he did to you and putting it on an empty holotape, maybe it’ll come in handy later,” So that was the plan but who knew if it would work, last time I let someone mess around with me I lost a month of my life but with no better options available I had to put my life literally in her hands and hope it worked out the way she hoped.

To say the feeling of having someone put something into my head again was unpleasant was an understatement as my entire body went rigid before relaxing as the thing connected. At least this wasn’t painful like the last experience and my system didn’t flag it as an error or a virus, “Seems like this gal really cares about you,” There he was again, Nick sounded a little surprised that Sylvie even cared about me but I was used to that, “and you care about her just as much?” If I could have talked I would have answered him but he knew the answer, of course he knew. He saw pretty much everything I did, heard everything I said to her as well but I was wondering why now of all times he decided to make himself known when I had no recollection of him being there before, “Questioning where I came from?” If I could have nodded I would have but that would have ruined what she was trying to do, “When he did whatever he did to you it broke one of the Institute’s safeguards on your memories. Where I actually came from I don’t know,” Well it was as good an answer as any. I closed my eyes and inwardly sighed, expecting there to be that pressure and headache from my system being overworked.

It wasn’t there though, the headache I had been suffering from silently was gone and the pressure was dissipating fast. Despite all that, I was still lacking my basic functions but her plan seemed to be working.


	18. Chapter 18

Between her plan for trying to take the corruption and put it on a holotape and my system constantly cycling the data to fix itself as well as purge the corruption, it couldn’t fix I actually started feeling better faster than I had anticipated. I did keep track of the time however to get a rough idea of how long I was compromised and it was going on two hours since I lost control. Normally that was no concern but it would have been enough to make me start to worry had I been completely alone with no way to try and reverse it.

I couldn’t do much at the point though I could feel the stiffness and tightness that had settled into possibly every fiber of my being loosening and releasing, giving me a relaxed feeling; something I thought I would never truly feel again, “Starting to feel any better?” I blinked, glancing in her general direction. When could I blink again? Like breathing I didn’t need to blink but it strangely just made me feel better. I tested to see if I could move my head at all but that part of my system was still locked up, well some movement was better than no movement. She moved to look me in the face again and I just looked at her, “You can blink…can you look, you know, up or down without moving your head?” That was an interesting question. I knew I could look side to side but as for the up or down that was undetermined.

It took a few tries but I found I could actually move my eyes so I was looking up or looking down, “Okay, that’s going to make communication a little easier…” She got up and moved away again, leaving me looking at the wall yet again. With nothing else to occupy my mind with I found myself wandering back into the memories of the original Nick Valentine. I focused on the more meaningful ones, finding quite a few that included Sylvie in a prewar world, memories I never bothered delving into.

I closed my eyes and let myself be completely lost to the memories, “Having fun?” I had almost forgotten about the other Nick. I could imagine him just sitting behind a wooden desk, kicked back, feet propped up on the desk and him just leveling someone over the end of a freshly lit cigarette, and right now I felt like that someone was me, “I have to ask, you do this regularly? Go through the memories I mean,” IN my head I was suddenly sitting in a dimly lit, possibly prewar office. It looked like something from an old novel, with him, the detective, on the other side of the desk from me, “I’m not complaining, not like it’s hurtin’ anything,” He took another drag off of his cigarette while waiting to see if I would answer him, “You can talk inside your head, you just can’t talk physically.” That had honestly never occurred to me as I shifted slightly in my seat under his scrutinizing gaze. Sitting forwards he pushed an open pack of cigarettes toward me as well as a lighter, “Always help me calm down, even if I didn’t light the thing,” He paused as if for effect, “of course you would know that and we have nothing to do at the moment…so, let’s talk.”

He said it like we were talking over coffee and that he wasn’t trapped inside my head with me, “What’s there to talk about?” Not taking my eyes off of him I took one of the cigarettes but didn’t light it, just held it in my hand. I didn’t always light my cigarettes, they were more of a nervous thing to occupy my hands when I was thinking deeply, “I don’t know how much exactly you know of my life since waking up. Then again, not much to talk about.” He didn’t seem to believe me as he waved his hand slightly side to side, a gesture that meant he either thought what I was saying some complete BS or he was entertaining the thought of actually learning something, “any thoughts on being…partnered, with a…private investigator?” He shrugged then, a lax and easy gesture as he took a drag off the cigarette in his hand.

This was an interrogation of the most basic sense and it was making me uncomfortable, “Well I’m pretty sure you’re aware of what I thought of PIs,” I nodded; I knew he saw Private investigators as sell-outs, cops who weren’t cops and not very reliable. The feeling of being looked over from top to bottom was, unnerving, to say the least, but he just cocked a smile before continuing, “But from what I’ve seen so far…this world has no formal law enforcement so being a cop don’t do you much good.” Why I took offense to that I wasn’t sure but I closed my hand tightly around the cigarette in my hand, “I’m not looking to insult you. I looked back through the memories though you’ve made over this life and I have to say, you’re doing a load of good for this world being a detective.” That was the last thing I was expecting to hear from him.

We moved on from just small talk and had just started talking about the two women of our lives; Sylvie and Jenny, were completely different from each other when I noticed it happening for the first time, “You’re….Flickering….” He glanced down to his hand that was resting on his leg as it happened again, “Why…” I cut myself off as a horrifying thought crossed my mind; he wasn’t actually real. Maybe I had been imagining the other Nick the whole time and I was actually alone, “Are…are you real? Or did I create you out fo the fear of being alone and you’re just a figment of my imagination?” I couldn’t keep the panic out of my voice at this point, I was scared that I had just been really talking to myself the whole time.

The other Nick sat forward, putting his feet firmly on the floor and resting his arms on the desk as hard golden amber eyes focused once again on me, “Nicola I am NOT a figment of your imagination. I can understand why you would think that but I’m not,” Hearing the full first name again made me inwardly flinch. Yes, it was his name too but hearing it like that just made me feel like I was being scolded, which I was, “I’m prominent right now because you’re lacking in the control of yourself,” Maybe it was the lack of control that was making me believe him but I just nodded, unsure of what else I could do, “I’ll still be around, just as your…voice of reason…like that little voice in the back of your head,” Great so now I basically had a consciousness that would tell me when I did something wrong. I nodded again but that was when I felt it; no tightness or restrictiveness when I tried to move. Closing my eyes again I cut off the memory link, bringing myself back to reality to see if I was actually getting more control back.

It was going on three and a half hours and there was still no sign that they were coming back for us, that was a good thing. Maybe he was expecting Sylvie to give up and abandon me but he didn’t know this woman and the hell she had been through that he would think this would discourage her, “Nick? You still there?” She was standing on the other side of the desk looking right at me but it was clear she had been poking around at the terminal some more, “You’re no longer hooked up, I don’t know if you could tell I disconnected you or not,” My partner stopped fiddling around with the terminal and came around the desk to where I was sitting. I watched her as she moved but I found I could actually move to follow her, that was a surprise in and of itself, “You can move…” I looked to her again as she sat down beside me, tears glistening at the corners of her eyes, “That’s…that’s great!” she wrapped her arms tightly around me, resting her head on my shoulder.

If I could move that much then maybe I could try to move more. The physical pain was something unexpected as I managed to get my limbs to function again. It was like my body has been frozen and was starting to thaw so every firing of a nerve sent pain through my entire body but I ignored the pain I was feeling anyway as I gently put my arms around her. It hurt, the pressure of just resting my hand on her back but I was willing to suffer through it for her, she meant the world and seeing her upset like this was more painful than any physical pain I could be suffering, “S…Syl…vie…” My voice sounded strange and foreign to my ears but the look of barely contained joy in her eyes was unmistakable. He may not have thought that I would ever come back to being functional but I was, and now I had even more of an ax to grind and this scientist's head was looking like the perfect place to do so.


	19. Chapter 19

It took another thirty minutes for the feeling to fully return to my body and for the pain to start to subside enough that any contact didn’t hurt like hell, “That…Bastard is…going to pay,” Everything I said sounded forced like I was in pain which wasn’t far off from the truth, but Sylvie looked up and nodded, resting her head against my shoulder again. We were still stuck in this godforsaken place but we had the downloaded map of the place and now we had a source of corruption that could ruin his whole operation but the one thing I wanted to know was why; why was he doing all this? Why did he suddenly decide to attack Sylvie? And what was he planning?

She didn’t seem too keen on the idea of my trying to stand up but I was done with having to sit there any longer, “Nick…please, I don’t think you should be standing up yet, you just got control of your body back,” As if on cue I felt like I was going to fall face-first into the floor but I managed to keep myself upright with one hand on desktop. The urge to tell her off was more than I wanted to handle but I bit back my anger and pain. She was just concerned about my wellbeing and didn’t deserve to get snapped at by me. After a while I obliged and sat back down, a defeated groan the only sound I trusted myself to make as I held my head in my hands, eyes stinging from the pain I was still feeling, “just…take a deep breath…it’ll be okay,” I tried to do as she said, taking a deep breath but I felt like I was choking and barely able to register her hand on my back; softly rubbing small circles.

I kept my head down a while more, trying in vain to keep myself composed but I couldn’t as a choked sob escaped my throat and I couldn’t hold it back anymore. Everything came flooding back to the forefront of my mind, overwhelming my system and I just couldn’t take it anymore. I just kept feeling more and more pathetic but I just couldn’t stop, not even as she put her arms around me, “I..I-I’m…s-sorry…I…” That was all I could force out as she pulled me into a tighter hug, resting her head on my shoulder and as much as I hate to admit it I came apart at the seams, putting my arms around her and not bothering to try and hold back. It felt as if a dam broke, a dam that was well past its time of being replaced and I just never bothered with it, just let it be and hoped it would never break but that hadn’t worked. I hadn’t expected her to stay with me through this, but she had always amazed me before, “Why?…” That was the most I could get out at the time but she made a sound that was almost like a hush.

I lost track of the time as we stayed in each other arms, “Why? Why have I stayed with you? Is that what you mean?” I didn’t look up but instead nodded against her shoulder, taking deep breaths in an attempt to calm down. She was so warm, that was something I never noticed before; her warmth and the feeling of her heartbeat. It gave me something to focus on, something to keep grounded with, “Because I love you Nick, and I plan to stand by you until Judgement Day happens,” My eyes widened as she said those three words, said she loved me. Given, I had also told her I loved her I had been thinking she was almost dead at the time when I said it, that she hadn’t heard me until she spoke and said something. Hearing it from her now, after I had lost control over my body, made me feel better than I ever did before as I pulled her close and rested my head on her shoulder again like she was doing to me, “Better?” I nodded again, still not sure if my voice would work the way I wanted it to but I felt like everything was falling into where it needed to be.

Soon I mustered up the courage to see if my voice would hold for more than a few words after the breakdown I had, “I…love you too sweetheart,” Saying it to her face and having her actually hear me say it felt like a massive weight had been lifted off my shoulders. It felt like nothing could stop us in the world as long as we were together. We stayed there for a while, both of us trying to come up with a plan for how to handle this. I was coming up with things that I was sure would work, “We need to find where all of his…drones are routed through…upload the corruption…and that will leave him without a network of foot soldiers. And that leaves him open to a direct attack…” She looked at her pip-boy again and nodded, “The map should have…the location of a power sink…operating all those synths must require a large sum of energy to see that they are all functional at all times…” I felt strangely light-headed and a little out of it but I chalked it up to still recovering from the infection of my system I had just suffered through.

“Yeah…” I glanced to my side, waiting to see if she had more to say but I could see that look of adoration was in her eyes again, the look that Ellie had mentioned, “Are you okay? Just take it easy okay?…” I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, hearing the voice in the back of my mind telling me to use calm down and take it easy like she had said to do. He sounded almost like an echo…like my thoughts were just reverberating around inside my head, it was enough to make me question if he was actually in there. I couldn’t lose myself to those thoughts again, I needed to stay grounded in the present if we ever hoped to get out of this.

The room wasn’t as hard to get out of as I had been imagining but I was starting to worry about Sylvie’s well being. This couldn’t have been good for her mentally or physically, “Enough worrying about me…How are you feeling? You’ve been going for a while now and I doubt you’ve slept…” I could tell she was getting exhausted but was fighting it, “You’re only human sweetheart, you can’t do everything at once…” I had a nagging suspicion that she was using some form of chem to make it through this but what I wasn’t going to press. She needed something if she was unable to sleep at all, I just hoped she wouldn’t get addicted to them. We found a room that was able to be locked from the inside and we settled down for a minute so she could get at least a few winks. She looked so small and innocent wrapped up in the trench coat as she leaned against my shoulder, “sleep well love…we’ll move out in a little bit…” I put my arm around her shoulders and listened to her breathe, slow and evenly.

The whole time she slept I thought about what our lives would be like once we got out of there. Would we live together? She had the home in Diamond City so it wouldn’t be much of a stretch for us to live together but we would have to see what would happen once we were topside. I kept an eye on the door despite knowing I was the one who locked it just as a precaution. In these kinds of situations where we were at the definite disadvantage, it never hurt to be too cautious to the point of overly cautious when it could mean life or death, “I’m gonna kill him when I get my hands on him…I’m…” I caught myself mid-thought, not willing to continue on that idea any longer. That thought process was getting darker than I needed at the moment and while I would have loved to make the man suffer greatly and pay for what he had done to the both of us I couldn’t let anger get in the way of being able to make a rational decision.

Eventually, I felt Sylvie start to stir. She snuggled closer before opening her eyes, fixing me with a look I couldn’t exactly place, “Morning,” The distant sound to her voice bothered me just as it did before. There was always the fear of residual effects but I just had to hope she would be okay. “Ready to move out?” She sat up, stretching her arms above her head before getting to her feet. The realization that she was even wearing the trench coat came when she reached her hand down to offer me a hand to my feet. She shrugged it off and handed it to me after I had gotten to my feet, “Now that I’ve gotten some rest we should find the control center,” She brought up the map on her pip-boy, “We shouldn’t be too far from it…”

I joined her in looking at the screen, “We’re right about here,” I pointed to one particular cluster of rooms off to the right of the screen, “and if I had to put caps on where the control center where all the synths are routed through would be, I would say there.” I moved my attention to one of the particularly well-reinforced rooms away from the bulk of the structures that were used for experimenting. It was north-north-east of us and down lower than we were now, ideally the perfect spot to have something like that. She nodded and we started planning a path to get there, taking into consideration all of what we had experienced so far and what could possibly be waiting for us.


End file.
